Interference averaging and interference resource groups in a wireless communication system

• US 9,525,446 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2013
• Issued: 12/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Davydov, Alexei, Morozov, Gregory, Etemad, Kamran, Sergeyev, Vadim, Bolotin, Ilya, Fwu, Jong-Kae
• Primary Examiner(s): Ghowrwal, Omar
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROCKMAN, ANGEL T
• Application Number:
  US14/127,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20150264594A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,201 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/12 Neutralising, balancing, or compensation arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3827 Portable transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/24 with feedback of measurements to the transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/26 using historical data, averaging values or statistics
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/345 Interference values signal-to-interference ratio [SIR] or carrier-to-interference ratio [CIR] H04B17/336
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• 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: H04J 11/005 of intercell interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0053 using co-ordinated multipoint transmission/reception co-ordinated antenna or beam-forming aspects H04B7/022
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0054 Maximum-likelihood or sequential decoding, e.g. Viterbi, Fano, ZJ algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1867 Arrangements specially adapted for the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0202 Channel estimation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0204 of multiple channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/03305 Joint sequence estimation and interference removal joint detection of several desired signals H04L25/03331
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/0008 arrangements for allowing a transmitter or receiver to use more than one type of modulation negotiating modulation type for two-way transmission paths H04L5/1453
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• 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 5/0058 : Allocation criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0092 : Indication of how the channel is divided
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 : Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 : Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/10 : Reselecting an access point controller
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/16 : based on interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0261 : managing power supply demand, e.g. depending on battery level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/40 : during macro-diversity or soft handoff
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 : Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/121 : for groups of terminals or users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 : Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 : in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 : based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 : based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/54 : based on quality criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 : using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/566 : of the information or information source or recipient
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 : of the traffic information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 : Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 : Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/28 : Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 : Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/18 : between terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses, and systems are described related to interference averaging to generate feedback information and interference averaging to demodulate receives signals. In embodiments, an evolved Node B (eNB) may transmit interference averaging information to a user equipment (UE) including a time domain averaging indicator indicating a time domain averaging window to be used by the UE for averaging interference measurements in a time domain or a frequency domain averaging indicator to indicate a frequency domain averaging window to be used by the UE for averaging interference measurements in a frequency domain. Additionally, or alternatively, the eNB may transmit an interference resource group (IRG) indicator to the UE to indicate an IRG over which the UE is to perform interference averaging to facilitate demodulation of signals received by the UE from the eNB.

Claims

1. An apparatus to be employed by a user equipment (UE) to generate feedback information, the apparatus comprising:

transceiver circuitry to;

communicate with an evolved Node B (eNB) over a channel of a wireless communication network; and

receive, from the eNB, interference averaging information, the interference averaging information including a time domain averaging indicator indicating a time domain averaging window to be used by the UE for averaging interference measurements in a time domain or a frequency domain averaging indicator to indicate a frequency domain averaging window to be used by the UE for averaging interference measurements in a frequency domain; and

interference measurement circuitry coupled to the transceiver circuitry, the interference measurement circuitry to;

obtain a plurality of interference measurements associated with the channel; and

average the interference measurements based on the interference averaging information; and

feedback circuitry coupled to the interference measurement circuitry, the feedback circuitry to generate channel state information (CSI) associated with the channel based on the averaged interference;

wherein the transceiver circuitry is further to transmit the CSI to the eNB.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interference averaging information includes the time domain averaging indicator and the frequency domain averaging indicator.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interference averaging information includes the frequency domain averaging indicator, and wherein the frequency domain averaging indicator includes a single bit that is to have a first value to indicate that the frequency domain averaging window includes a single sub-band of the channel or a second value to indicate that the frequency domain averaging window includes all sub-bands of the channel.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transceiver circuitry is to receive the interference averaging information via radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interference averaging information includes the time domain averaging indicator, and wherein the time domain averaging indicator includes a single bit having a first value to indicate that the time domain averaging window is restricted to a single subframe, or a second value to indicate that the time domain averaging window is unrestricted in the time domain.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interference averaging information includes the time domain averaging indicator, wherein the UE is to receive a CSI feedback model associated with the channel, and wherein the feedback circuitry is to generate CSI for individual sub-bands of the channel based on a determination that the CSI feedback model supports sub-band channel quality indicators (CQIs).

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interference measurement circuitry is to measure interference on one or more CSI-interference measurement (CSI-IM) resource elements (REs) of the channel to obtain the plurality of interference measurements.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interference measurements include channel quality indicator (CQI) measurements.

9. An apparatus to be employed by an evolved Node B (eNB) to manage feedback information generated by a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising:

transceiver circuitry to communicate with the UE over a channel of a wireless communication network; and

interference management circuitry coupled to the transceiver circuitry, the interference management circuitry to transmit, to the UE via the transceiver circuitry, interference averaging information to indicate a frequency domain averaging window over which the UE is to perform interference averaging to obtain an average interference used to generate channel state information (CSI) associated with the channel.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the transceiver circuitry is further to receive the CSI associated with the channel from the UE.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the interference averaging information includes a frequency domain averaging indicator having a single bit having a first value to indicate that the UE is to generate CSI for individual sub-bands of the channel or a second value to indicate that the UE is to generate CSI for the channel based on the average interference across all sub-bands of the channel.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the interference averaging information is further to indicate a time domain averaging window.

13. An apparatus to be employed by a user equipment (UE) to receive signals from an evolved Node B (eNB), the apparatus comprising:

transceiver circuitry to;

communicate with the eNB over a plurality of resource elements arranged in physical resource blocks (PRBs) of a wireless communication channel; and

receive, from the eNB, an interference resource group (IRG) indicator to indicate a number of the physical resource blocks (PRBs) included in an IRG;

interference measurement circuitry to average interference measurements over the IRG to obtain one or more averaged interference parameters; and

demodulation circuitry to demodulate signals received from the eNB on the IRG based on the averaged interference parameters.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the IRG indicator is to indicate that the number of PRBs in the IRG is equal to one PRB, one precoding resource group (PRG) including one or more PRBs, or one resource block group (RBG) including one or more PRBs.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the number of PRBs in the IRG corresponds to a granularity of scheduling of channel resources for the UE.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the signals received from the eNB on the IRG include a same precoding, power, modulation, or transmission scheme.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the IRG indicator includes a single bit that has a first value to indicate that the IRG corresponds to a single PRB or a second value to indicate that the IRG corresponds to a smaller one of a precoding resource group (PRB) or a resource block group (RBG).

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the interference measurement circuitry is to:

determine that the IRG indicator indicates that the IRG corresponds to the smaller one of the PRG or the RBG; and

determine a number of PRBs in the PRG and a number of PRBs in the RBG based on a system bandwidth associated with the eNB.

19. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the interference measurement circuitry is to perform the interference measurements on cell-specific reference signals (CRSs) or UE-specific reference signals received from the eNB.

20. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the PRBs in the IRG are adjacent to one another in the time domain.

21. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed cause an evolved Node B (eNB) to:

determine a physical resource block (PRB) granularity of scheduling or a PRB granularity of precoding for signals transmitted from the eNB to a user equipment (UE) over a wireless communication network;

determine a number of PRBs in an interference resource group (IRG) based on the PRB granularity of scheduling or the PRB granularity of precoding; and

transmit, to the UE, an IRG indicator to indicate the number of PRBs included in the IRG, wherein the UE is to perform interference averaging over the IRG to facilitate demodulation of the signals transmitted from the eNB to the UE.

22. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the eNB to determine the PRB granularity of scheduling and the PRB granularity of precoding, wherein the number of PRBs in the IRG corresponds to a smaller one of the PRB granularity of scheduling or the PRB granularity of precoding.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein the IRG indicator is to indicate that the number of PRBs in the IRG is equal to one PRB, one precoding resource group (PRG) including one or more PRBs, or one resource block group (RBG) including one or more PRBs.

24. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein the IRG indicator includes a single bit that has a first value to indicate that the UE is to perform interference averaging over a smaller one of a precoding resource group (PRB) or a resource block group (RBG), or a second value to indicate that the UE is to perform interference averaging over a single PRB.

25. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein the IRG indicator is transmitted to the UE via radio resource control (RRC) signaling.