Dynamical time division duplex uplink and downlink configuration in a communications network

• US 9,756,649 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2016
• Issued: 09/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: He, Hong, Fwu, Jong-Kae, Khoryaev, Alexey, Heo, Youn Hyoung
• Primary Examiner(s): Mered, Habte
• Application Number:
  US15/256,105
• Publication Number:
  US 20160374141A1
• Time in Patent Office: 368 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/243 with built-in antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/00 Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system means for positioning H01Q1/125
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0632 Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0686 Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and simultaneous transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0695 using beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0023 Interference mitigation or co-ordination direct sequence spread spectrum [DSSS] systems H04B1/7097; frequency hopping H04B1/713; allocation criteria for ingress interference avoidance H04L5/0062; frequency allocation criteria for requirements on out-of-channel emissions H04L5/0066; arrangements for removing intersymbol interference or baseband equalisers H04L25/03006; peak power aspects in multicarrier modulation H04L27/2614; power management H04W52/00; traffic scheduling H04W72/54, H04W72/541
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0066 of control information between different types of networks in order to establish a new radio link in the target network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0072 of resource information of target access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0083 Determination of parameters used for hand-off, e.g. generation or modification of neighbour cell lists
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/30 by measured or perceived connection quality data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0209 : in terminal devices terminal devices per se H04W88/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 : Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• 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 72/541 : using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0833 : Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 : Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• 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 84/045 : using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• 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 88/08 : Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A technology is disclosed for a user equipment (UE) that is operable to dynamically change an uplink/downlink (UL/DL) configuration in a communications network. A radio resource control (RRC) connection can be requested with an enhanced node B (eNode B). A UE Capability Information information element (IE) can be communicated to the eNode B to indicate an enhanced interference mitigation and traffic adaptation (eIMTA) capability of the UE to support an eIMTA time duplex domain (TDD) UL/DL reconfiguration functionality. An eIMTA configuration information can be received at the UE information within a RRCConnectionSetup message or a RRCConnectionReconfiguration message.

Claims

1. An apparatus of an evolved Node B (eNB) operable to reconfigure a time division duplex (TDD) uplink and downlink (UL/DL) configuration for a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising one or more processors and memory configured to:

determine a set of configuration indication fields numbered 1 to N, included in a downlink control information (DCI) format Y carried on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), where

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further configured to signal a transceiver of the eNB to transmit to the UE, an UL/DL configuration indication for the TDD reconfiguration.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the DCI format Y is a format 1C.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein M=3.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further configured to append one or more bits, with a predefined value of zero, to the set of configuration indication fields, until a total number of bits of the N configuration indication fields is equal to the payload size of the DCI format Y.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further configured to signal a transceiver of the eNB to send the eIMTA-RNTI to the UE to enable the UE to decode the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further configured to indicate, to the UE, an index, for the set of configuration indication fields numbered 1 to N, a time domain duplex (TDD) UL-DL configuration index for a serving cell using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the eNB is configured to decode, an indication from a UE, that the UE supports TDD UL-DL reconfiguration functionality.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the DCI format Y is mapped onto a common search space (CSS) of the PDCCH for transmission to the UE.

10. An apparatus of a user equipment (UE) operable to reconfigure a time division duplex (TDD) uplink and downlink configuration, the apparatus comprising one or more processors and memory configured to:

process, at the UE, an uplink and downlink (UL/DL) configuration indication received from the eNB for the TDD reconfiguration, the UL/DL configuration indication comprising;

a set of configuration indication fields numbered 1 to N, included in a downlink control information (DCI) format Y carried on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), where

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a transceiver configured to:

receive the UL/DL configuration indication from the eNB; and

receive the encoded PDCCH from the eNB.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the DCI format Y is a format 1C.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein M=3.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein one or more bits are appended, with a predefined value of zero, to the set of configuration indication fields, until a total number of bits of the N configuration indication fields is equal to the payload size of the DCI format Y.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, further configured to receive the eIMTA-RNTI from the eNB, wherein the UE is configured to decode the encoded PDCCH using the eIMTA-RNTI.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, further configured receive an indication, from the eNB, of an index for a time domain duplex (TDD) UL-DL configuration index for a serving cell using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, further configured to signal a transceiver of the eNB to send an indication to the eNB, wherein the indication specifies that the UE supports TDD UL-DL reconfiguration functionality.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the UE includes an antenna, a touch sensitive display screen, a speaker, a microphone, a graphics processor, an application processor, an internal memory, or a non-volatile memory port.

19. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the DCI format Y is mapped onto a common search space (CSS) of the PDCCH for transmission to the UE.

20. At least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon for modifying an uplink/ downlink (UL/DL) configuration at a user equipment (UE) in a communications network, the instructions when executed perform the following:

requesting, using one or more processors at the UE, a radio resource control (RRC) connection with an eNodeB;

signaling, using the one or more processors at the UE, a UE Capability Information information element (IE) for transmission to the eNodeB, wherein the UE Capability IE indicates an enhanced interference mitigation and traffic adaptation (eIMTA) capability of the UE to support an eIMTA time duplex domain (TDD) UL/DL reconfiguration functionality; and

processing, using the one or more processors at the UE, eIMTA configuration information received from the eNodeB via a radio resource control (RRC) message, wherein the eIMTA configuration information is received in response to signaling the UE Capability IE to the eNodeB.

21. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the RRC message includes an eIMTA Radio-Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI).

22. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 21, further comprising instructions when executed perform the following:

attempting to decode an UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by the assigned eIMTA-RNTI; and

determining UL/DL configuration information from a decoded UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH based on the assigned indicator field index.

23. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH includes N TDD UL/DL Configuration Indicator (TCI) fields, where N is determined using

24. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein zero-padding information bits are appended to TDD UL/DL configuration indicator fields until a UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH size is equal to a format Y size mapped onto the common search space.

25. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 21, further comprising instructions when executed perform the following:

monitoring one common search space (CSS) on a Primary Cell (PCell) to receive the UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH with CRC scrambled by the eIMTA-RNTI assigned for the UE.