System and method for sharing a control channel for carrier aggregation

• US 9,642,129 B2
• Filed: 08/19/2014
• Issued: 05/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Limited
• Original Assignee: Golden Valley Holdings Limited (BBK Electronics Corp., Inc.)
• Inventors: McBeath, Sean Michael, Earnshaw, Andrew Mark, Fong, Mo-Han, Heo, Youn Hyoung, Cai, Zhijun
• Primary Examiner(s): Oveissi, David
• Application Number:
  US14/463,388
• Publication Number:
  US 20140376490A1
• Time in Patent Office: 987 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/003 Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

A method for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) to identify at least one of an uplink and a downlink resource allocated by a resource grant within a multi-carrier communication system wherein resource grants are specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates wherein the carriers used for data transmission and reception are configured carriers, the method comprising the steps of receiving activation signals specifying active and deactivated carriers from among the configured carriers, for active carriers (i) identifying a number of CCE subset candidates to decode and (ii) decoding up to the identified number of CCE subset candidates in an attempt to identify the resource grant; and for deactivated carriers, ignoring CCE subset candidates associated with the deactivated carriers.

Claims

1. A method for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) to identify at least one of an uplink or a downlink resource allocated by a resource grant within a multi-carrier communication system wherein resource grants are specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates, the method comprising the steps of:

determining locations of CCE subset candidates for each carrier;

receiving a downlink control information (DCI) signaling;

determining whether a CCE subset candidate corresponds to more than one carrier;

if the CCE subset candidate corresponds to more than one carrier;

decoding the DCI signaling by identifying a carrier indicator field (CIF) within the DCI signaling; and

using the CIF to identify a carrier associated with the CCE subset candidate; and

if the CCE subset candidate corresponds to no more than one carrier;

decoding the DCI signaling, wherein a CIF is not included in the DCI signaling.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the CIF is three bits where each value of the CIF corresponds to a particular carrier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the CCE subset candidates are included in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the CCE subset candidates are identified based on an index for the corresponding carrier.

5. A method for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) to identify at least one of an uplink or a downlink resource allocated by a resource grant within a multi-carrier communication system wherein resource grants are specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates, the method comprising the steps of:

determining locations of CCE subset candidates for each carrier;

receiving a downlink control information (DCI) signaling;

determining whether at least one CCE subset candidate at a specific aggregation level corresponds to no more than one carrier;

if at least one CCE subset candidate at the specific aggregation level corresponds to no more than one carrier;

decoding all DCI signalings corresponding to the specific aggregation level, wherein none of the DCI signalings corresponding to the specific aggregation level includes a carrier indicator field (CIF); and

if all CCE subset candidates at the specific aggregation level correspond to more than one carrier;

decoding all DCI signaling corresponding to the specific aggregation level for a subframe by identifying a carrier indicator field (CIF) within each of the DCI signaling; and

using the CIF to identify carriers associated with the CCE subset candidate.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the CIF is three bits where each value of the CIF corresponds to a particular carrier.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the CCE subset candidates are included in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the CCE subset candidates are identified based on an index for the corresponding carrier.

9. A method for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) to identify at least one of an uplink or a downlink resource allocated by a resource grant within a multi-carrier communication system wherein resource grants are specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates, the method comprising the steps of:

determining locations of CCE subset candidates for each carrier;

receiving a downlink control information (DCI) signaling;

determining whether at least one CCE subset candidate at any of a plurality of aggregation levels corresponds to no more than one carrier;

if at least one CCE subset candidate at any of the plurality of aggregation levels corresponds to no more than one carrier;

decoding all DCI signalings corresponding to each of the plurality of aggregation levels, wherein none of the DCI signalings includes a carrier indicator field (CIF);

if all CCE subset candidates correspond to more than one carrier;

decoding each DCI signaling at each of the plurality of aggregation levels for a subframe by identifying a carrier indicator field (CIF) within each DCI signaling; and

using the CIFs to identify carriers associated with the CCE subset candidates.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the CIF is three bits where each value of the CIF corresponds to a particular carrier.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the CCE subset candidates are included in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the CCE subset candidates are identified based on an index for the corresponding carrier.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) to identify at least one of an uplink or a downlink resource allocated by a resource grant within a multi-carrier communication system wherein resource grants are specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates, the non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions to cause a processor to perform operations comprising:

determining locations of CCE subset candidates for each carrier;

receiving a downlink control information (DCI) signaling;

determining whether a CCE subset candidate corresponds to more than one carrier;

if the CCE subset candidate corresponds to more than one carrier;

decoding the DCI signaling by identifying a carrier indicator field (CIF) within the DCI signaling; and

using the CIF to identify a carrier associated with the CCE subset candidate; and

if the CCE subset candidate corresponds to no more than one carrier;

decoding the DCI signaling, wherein the DCI signaling does not include a CIF.

14. A user equipment (UE) for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) to identify at least one of an uplink or a downlink resource allocated by a resource grant within a multi-carrier communication system wherein resource grants are specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates, the UE comprising:

one or more processors configured to;

determine locations of CCE subset candidates for each carrier;

receive a downlink control information (DCI) signaling;

determine whether a CCE subset candidate corresponds to more than one carrier;

if the CCE subset candidate corresponds to more than one carrier;

decode the DCI signaling by identifying a carrier indicator field (CIF) within the DCI signaling; and

using the CIF to identify a carrier associated with the CCE subset candidate; and

if the CCE subset candidate corresponds to no more than one carrier;

decode the DCI signaling, wherein a CIF is not included in the DCI signaling.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) to identify at least one of an uplink or a downlink resource allocated by a resource grant within a multi-carrier communication system wherein resource grants are specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates, the non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions to cause a processor to perform operations comprising:

determining locations of CCE subset candidates for each carrier;

receiving a downlink control information (DCI) signaling;

determining whether at least one CCE subset candidate at a specific aggregation level corresponds to no more than one carrier;

if at least one CCE subset candidate at the specific aggregation level corresponds to no more than one carrier;

decoding all DCI signalings corresponding to the specific aggregation level, wherein none of the DCI signalings corresponding to the specific aggregation level includes a carrier indicator field (CIF); and

if all CCE subset candidates at the specific aggregation level correspond to more than one carrier;

decoding all DCI signaling corresponding to the specific aggregation level for a subframe by identifying a carrier indicator field (CIF) within each of the DCI signaling; and

using the CIF to identify carriers associated with the CCE subset candidate.

16. A user equipment (UE) for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) to identify at least one of an uplink and a downlink resource allocated by a resource grant within a multi-carrier communication system wherein resource grants are specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates, the UE comprising:

one or more processors configured to;

determine locations of CCE subset candidates for each carrier;

receive a downlink control information (DCI) signaling;

determine whether at least one CCE subset candidate at a specific aggregation level corresponds to no more than one carrier;

if at least one CCE subset candidate at the specific aggregation level corresponds to no more than one carrier;

decode all DCI signalings corresponding to the specific aggregation level, wherein none of the DCI signalings corresponding to the specific aggregation level includes a carrier indicator field (CIF); and

if all CCE subset candidates at the specific aggregation level correspond to more than one carrier;

decode all DCI signaling corresponding to the specific aggregation level for a subframe by identifying a carrier indicator field (CIF) within each of the DCI signaling; and

use the CIF to identify carriers associated with the CCE subset candidate.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) to identify at least one of an uplink and a downlink resource allocated by a resource grant within a multi-carrier communication system wherein resource grants are specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates, the non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions to cause a processor to perform operations comprising:

determining locations of CCE subset candidates for each carrier;

receiving a downlink control information (DCI) signaling;

determining whether at least one CCE subset candidate at any of a plurality of aggregation levels corresponds to no more than one carrier;

if at least one CCE subset candidate at any of the plurality of aggregation levels corresponds to no more than one carrier;

decoding all DCI signalings corresponding to each of the plurality of aggregation levels, wherein none of the DCI signalings includes a carrier indicator field (CIF);

if all CCE subset candidates correspond to more than one carrier;

decoding each DCI signaling at each of the plurality of aggregation levels for a subframe by identifying a carrier indicator field (CIF) within each DCI signaling; and

using the CIFs to identify carriers associated with the CCE subset candidates.

18. A user equipment (UE) for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) to identify at least one of an uplink or a downlink resource allocated by a resource grant within a multi-carrier communication system wherein resource grants are specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates, the UE comprising:

one or more processors configured to;

determine locations of CCE subset candidates for each carrier;

receive a downlink control information (DCI) signaling;

determine whether at least one CCE subset candidate at any of a plurality of aggregation levels corresponds to no more than one carrier;

if at least one CCE subset candidate at any of the plurality of aggregation levels corresponds to no more than one carrier;

decode all DCI signalings corresponding to each of the plurality of aggregation levels, wherein none of the DCI signalings includes a carrier indicator field (CIF);

if all CCE subset candidates correspond to more than one carrier;

decode each DCI signaling at each of the plurality of aggregation levels for a subframe by identifying a carrier indicator field (CIF) within each DCI signaling; and

use the CIFs to identify carriers associated with the CCE subset candidates.

19. A network node, comprising:

a transmitter configured to;

transmit, to a user agent (UA), a resource grant that allocates at least one of an uplink or a downlink resource within a multi-carrier communication system, wherein the resource grant is specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates; and

transmit a downlink control information (DCI) signaling;

one or more processors configured to;

when a CCE subset candidate corresponds to more than one carrier, include a carrier indicator field (CIF) within the DCI signaling to explicitly signal a carrier associated with the CCE subset candidate; and

when the CCE subset candidate only corresponds to one carrier, omit a CIF to implicitly signal the carrier associated with the CCE subset candidate based on a location of the CCE subset candidate within a search space.

20. The network node of claim 19, wherein the CIF is three bits where each value of the CIF corresponds to a particular carrier.

21. The network node of claim 19, wherein the CCE subset candidates are included in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

22. The network node of claim 19, wherein the CCE subset candidates are identified based on an index for the corresponding carrier.