Method for receiving and transmitting ACK/NACK information, user equipment, and base station

• US 9,549,327 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2012
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Jinmin, Han, Seunghee, Lee, Hyunwoo
• Primary Examiner(s): Chriss, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ahmed, Atique
• Application Number:
  US13/984,484
• Publication Number:
  US 20130315115A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,763 Days
• Field of Search: 370/329, 370/252, 370/280
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0056 Inter-base station aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0032 Distributed allocation, i.e. involving a plurality of allocating devices, each making partial allocation
• 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 5/0073 Allocation arrangements that take into account other cell interferences for intercell interference mitigation or co-ordination in orthogonal multiplex systems H04J11/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for mitigating/eliminating interference between adjacent cells by configuring a subframe subset, in which the downlink transmission/reception of a specific cell to be user equipment-specific is limited. According to the present invention, the transmission/reception of a downlink signal for a specific user equipment in the subframe in which the downlink transmission/reception of the specific cell is limited, thereby mitigating/eliminating interference from an uplink of a different cell with the downlink of the specific cell from a base station to the specific user equipment.

Claims

1. A method for receiving, by a user equipment operating in a time division duplex (TDD) mode, acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) information from a base station, the method comprising:

receiving a Downlink-Uplink (DL-UL) configuration of the base station from the base station;

receiving a neighboring DL-UL configuration of a neighboring base station from the base station;

determining one or more collision subframes based on the DL-UL configuration and the neighboring DL-UL configuration, wherein the one or more collision subframes are one or more downlink subframes of the base station corresponding to one or more uplink subframes of the neighboring base station;

receiving, from the base station, an information bitmap indicating at least one restricted subframe of the one or more collision subframes, wherein the information bitmap is specifically configured to the user equipment; and

receiving the ACK/NACK information at a first downlink subframe according to the DL-UL configuration,

wherein the first downlink subframe is a downlink subframe of the base station other than the at least one restricted subframe, and

wherein a physical downlink control channel, a physical downlink shared channel, and a physical hybrid automatic retransmit request indicator channel are restricted to be received at the user equipment in the at least one restricted subframe.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ACK/NACK information is received in an available downlink subframe indicated by the DL-UL configuration after a transmission timing when the transmission timing belongs to the at least one restricted subframe.

3. A method for transmitting, by a base station, acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) information to a user equipment operating in a time division duplex (TDD) mode, the method comprising:

transmitting a Downlink-Uplink (DL-UL) configuration of the base station to the user equipment;

transmitting a neighboring DL-UL configuration of a neighboring base station to the user equipment;

determining one or more collision subframes based on the DL-UL configuration and the neighboring DL-UL configuration, wherein the one or more collision subframes are one or more downlink subframes of the base station corresponding to one or more uplink subframes of the neighboring base station;

transmitting, to the user equipment, an information bitmap indicating at least one restricted subframe of the one or more collision subframes, wherein the information bitmap is specifically configured to the user equipment; and

dropping the ACK/NACK information at a transmission timing of the ACK/NACK information when the transmission timing belongs to the at least one restricted subframe, and transmitting the ACK/NACK information at the transmission timing when the transmission timing belongs to a downlink subframe indicated by the DL-UL configuration and does not belong to the at least one restricted subframe,

wherein a physical downlink control channel, a physical downlink shared channel, and a physical hybrid automatic retransmit request indicator channel are restricted to be transmitted to the user equipment in the at least one restricted subframe.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the DL-UL configuration used in the user equipment is different from the neighboring DL-UL configuration used in the neighboring base station adjacent to the base station.

5. The method according to claim 3,

wherein the ACK/NACK information is transmitted in an available downlink subframe indicated by the DL-UL configuration after the transmission timing when the transmission timing belongs to the at least one restricted subframe.

6. A user equipment operating in a time division duplex (TDD) mode, for receiving acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) information from a base station, the user equipment comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) unit configured to transmit and receive a radio signal; and

a processor configured to control the RF unit,

wherein the processor is further configured to;

control the RF unit to receive a Downlink-Uplink (DL-UL) configuration of the base station from the base station,

control the RF unit to receive a neighboring DL-UL configuration of a neighboring base station from the base station,

determine one or more collision subframes based on the DL-UL configuration and the neighboring DL-UL configuration, wherein the one or more collision subframes are one or more downlink subframes of the base station corresponding to one or more uplink subframes of the neighboring base station,

control the RF unit to receive, from the base station, an information bitmap indicating at least one restricted subframe of the one or more collision subframes, and

control the RF unit to receive the ACK/NACK information at a first downlink subframe according to the DL-UL configuration,

wherein the information bitmap is specifically configured to the user equipment,

wherein the first downlink subframe is a downlink subframe of the base station other than the at least one restricted subframe, and

wherein a physical downlink control channel, a physical downlink shared channel, and a physical hybrid automatic retransmit request indicator channel are restricted to be received at the user equipment in the at least one restricted subframe.

7. The user equipment according to claim 6, wherein the DL-UL configuration used in the user equipment is different from the neighboring DL-UL configuration used in the neighboring base station adjacent to the base station.

8. The user equipment according to claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to control the RF unit to receive the ACK/NACK information in an available downlink subframe indicated by the DL-UL configuration after a transmission timing of the ACK/NACK information when the transmission timing belongs to the at least one restricted subframe.

9. A base station for transmitting acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) information to a user equipment operating in a time division duplex (TDD) mode, the base station comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) unit configured to transmit and receive a radio signal; and

a processor configured to control the RF unit,

wherein the processor is further configured to;

control the RF unit to transmit a Downlink-Uplink (DL-UL) configuration of the base station to the user equipment,

control the RF unit to transmit a neighboring DL-UL configuration of a neighboring base station to the user equipment,

determine one or more collision subframes based on the DL-UL configuration and the neighboring DL-UL configuration, wherein the one or more collision subframes are one or more downlink subframes of the base station corresponding to one or more uplink subframes of the neighboring base station,

control the RF unit to transmit, to the user equipment, an information bitmap indicating at least one restricted subframe of the one or more collision subframes, and

drop the ACK/NACK information at a transmission timing of the ACK/NACK information when the transmission timing belongs to the at least one restricted subframe, and control the RF unit to transmit the ACK/NACK information at the transmission timing when the transmission timing belongs to a downlink subframe indicated by the DL-UL configuration and does not belong to the at least one restricted subframe,

wherein the information bitmap is specifically configured to the user equipment,

wherein the first downlink subframe is a downlink subframe of the base station other than the at least one restricted subframe, and

wherein a physical downlink control channel, a physical downlink shared channel, and a physical hybrid automatic retransmit request indicator channel are restricted to be received at the user equipment in the at least one restricted subframe.

10. The base station according to claim 9, wherein the DL-UL configuration used in the base station is different from the neighboring DL-UL configuration used in the neighboring base station adjacent to the base station.

11. The base station according to claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to control the RF unit to transmit the ACK/NACK information in an available downlink subframe indicated by the DL-UL configuration after the transmission timing when the transmission timing belongs to the at least one restricted subframe.