Methods and system for communicating control information using carrier aggregation

• US 9,473,972 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2014
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Wang, Ping, Fwu, Jong-Kae, Etemad, Kamran
• Primary Examiner(s): Nooristany, Sulaiman
• Application Number:
  US14/455,099
• Publication Number:
  US 20140348115A1
• Time in Patent Office: 802 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0417 Feedback systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0465 taking power constraints at power amplifier or emission constraints, e.g. constant modulus, into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0478 Special codebook structures directed to feedback optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0482 Adaptive codebooks
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0486 taking channel rank into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0632 Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0639 Using selective indices, e.g. of a codebook, e.g. pre-distortion matrix index [PMI] or for beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0046 using joint detection algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0032 Without explicit signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1861 Physical mapping arrangements for ACK signaling see also H04L5/0053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2602 Signal structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2613 Structure of the reference signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/26132 using repetition
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0025 Spatial division following the spatial signature of the channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0026 Division using four or more dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0035 Resource allocation in a cooperative multipoint environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 : Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0051 : of dedicated pilots, i.e. pilots destined for a single user or terminal
• 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 5/0057 : Physical resource allocation for CQI
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0092 : Indication of how the channel is divided
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 : Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 : for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 : for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2365 : Multiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 : IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 : Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 : Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0231 : based on communication conditions dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition based on channel quality criteria H04W72/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0268 : using specific QoS parameters for wireless networks, e.g. QoS class identifier [QCI] or guaranteed bit rate [GBR] negotiating SLA or negotiating QoS H04W28/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 : Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/06 : based on traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0203 : in the radio access network or backbone network of wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0219 : where the power saving management affects multiple terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/005 : Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 : Control channels or signalling for resource management
• 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 72/566 : of the information or information source or recipient
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 : Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/10 : adapted for operation in multiple networks, e.g. multi-mode access points
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

An apparatus may include a radio frequency (RF) transceiver to receive a first message over a first carrier in a first band in a downlink sub-frame of a first radio frame in a communications link, where the communications link comprises interband carriers aggregated over primary and secondary cells. The apparatus may also include a processor and a reply message assignment module operable on the processor to determine a downlink sub-frame in which the downlink transmission is received and to adjust timing of a reply/acknowledge message to be sent by the RF transceiver in response to the first message so as to coincide with a predetermined uplink sub-frame of a radio frame. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory; and

logic for user equipment (UE), at least a portion of the logic comprised in circuitry coupled to the memory, the logic to;

identify an uplink (UL)/downlink (DL) configuration of a primary time division duplex (TDD) cell of the UE and a UL/DL configuration of a secondary TDD cell of the UE;

identify a subframe of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission of the secondary TDD cell, the PDSCH transmission to comprise data intended for the UE;

determine, based on the UL/DL configuration of the primary TDD cell, the UL/DL configuration of the secondary TDD cell, and the subframe of the PDSCH transmission, a UL subframe for transmission of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) response for the PDSCH transmission; and

generate the HARQ response for transmission over a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) of the primary TDD cell during the UL subframe.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, the logic to:

determine an adapted downlink association set based on the UL/DL configuration of the primary TDD cell and the UL/DL configuration of the secondary TDD cell; and

identify the UL subframe based on the adapted downlink association set and the subframe of the PDSCH transmission.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, the primary TDD cell to use a component carrier of a first band, the secondary TDD cell to use a component carrier of a second band that differs from the first band.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, the UL/DL configuration of the primary TDD cell to differ from the UL/DL configuration of the secondary TDD cell.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, the UL subframe to comprise a common UL subframe of the primary TDD cell and the secondary TDD cell.

6. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions that, in response to being executed at user equipment (UE), cause the UE to:

identify an uplink (UL)/downlink (DL) configuration of a primary time division duplex (TDD) cell of the UE and a UL/DL configuration of a secondary TDD cell of the UE;

identify a subframe of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission of the secondary TDD cell, the PDSCH transmission to comprise data intended for the UE;

determine, based on the UL/DL configuration of the primary TDD cell, the UL/DL configuration of the secondary TDD cell, and the subframe of the PDSCH transmission, a UL subframe for transmission of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) response for the PDSCH transmission; and

generate the HARQ response for transmission over a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) of the primary TDD cell during the UL subframe.

7. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, comprising instructions that, in response to being executed at the UE, cause the UE to:

determine an adapted downlink association set based on the UL/DL configuration of the primary TDD cell and the UL/DL configuration of the secondary TDD cell; and

identify the UL subframe based on the adapted downlink association set and the subframe of the PDSCH transmission.

8. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, the primary TDD cell to use a component carrier of a first band, the secondary TDD cell to use a component carrier of a second band that differs from the first band.

9. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, the UL/DL configuration of the primary TDD cell to differ from the UL/DL configuration of the secondary TDD cell.

10. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, the UL subframe to comprise a common UL subframe of the primary TDD cell and the secondary TDD cell.

11. User equipment (UE), comprising:

a memory;

logic, at least a portion of the logic comprised in circuitry coupled to the memory, the logic to;

identify an uplink (UL)/downlink (DL) configuration of a primary time division duplex (TDD) cell of the UE and a UL/DL configuration of a secondary TDD cell of the UE;

identify a subframe of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission of the secondary TDD cell, the PDSCH transmission to comprise data intended for the UE; and

determine, based on the UL/DL configuration of the primary TDD cell, the UL/DL configuration of the secondary TDD cell, and the subframe of the PDSCH transmission, a UL subframe for transmission of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARD) response for the PDSCH transmission; and

a radio frequency (RF) transceiver to transmit the HARQ response over a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) of the primary TDD cell during the UL subframe.

12. The UE of claim 11, the logic to:

determine an adapted downlink association set based on the UL/DL configuration of the primary TDD cell and the UL/DL configuration of the secondary TDD cell; and

identify the UL subframe based on the adapted downlink association set and the subframe of the PDSCH transmission.

13. The UE of claim 11, the primary TDD cell to use a component carrier of a first band, the secondary TDD cell to use a component carrier of a second band that differs from the first band.

14. The UE of claim 11, the UL/DL configuration of the primary TDD cell to differ from the UL/DL configuration of the secondary TDD cell.

15. The UE of claim 11, the UL subframe to comprise a common UL subframe of the primary TDD cell and the secondary TDD cell.