Methods and apparatus for processing control and/or shared channels in long term evolution (LTE)

• US 9,839,009 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2013
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Wanshi, Gaal, Peter, Geirhofer, Stefan, Xu, Hao
• Primary Examiner(s): Thompson, Jr., Otis L
• Application Number:
  US13/948,247
• Publication Number:
  US 20140036804A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,596 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management

Abstract

Certain aspects provide methods and apparatus for processing a control channel and/or a shared channel in a subframe based on a determination that one or more channel properties of the two channels are substantially the same. One example method generally includes receiving a control channel and a shared channel within a subframe; determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel in the subframe are substantially the same; and processing the control channel and the shared channel based on the determination. In this manner, estimations determined for a first channel may be assumed for a second channel whose channel properties are substantially the same as the first channel, rather than by separately determining the estimations for the second channel, thereby saving processing time.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communications, comprising:

receiving a control channel and a shared channel within a subframe;

determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel in the received subframe are substantially the same,

wherein the one or more channel properties comprise at least one of a delay spread, a receive power, a frequency shift, a Doppler spread, or a receiver timing, and

wherein the determining is based on a radio resource control (RRC)-configured resource set associated with the control channel;

determining that the control channel and the shared channel are quasi co-located based on the determination that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same; and

processing the control channel and the shared channel based on the determination that the control channel and the shared channel are quasi co-located.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the control channel comprises an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH).

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the ePDCCH uses at least one of antenna ports 107-110.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the shared channel comprises a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the PDSCH uses at least one of antenna ports 7-14.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same comprises receiving an explicit indication that the channel properties are substantially the same.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the explicit indication comprises at least one of radio resource control (RRC) signaling or a signal conveyed in the control channel.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same comprises using an implicit indication that the channel properties are substantially the same.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein using the implicit indication comprises determining that both the control channel and the shared channel use effectively the same cell identifiers (IDs) in the subframe.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each cell ID is a virtual cell ID, separately configured from a physical cell ID associated with a cell.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same channel estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein using the same channel estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same channel estimation for corresponding antenna ports between the control and shared channels.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein using the same channel estimation comprises using the same channel estimation if corresponding resource blocks between the control and the shared channels belong to the same physical resource block pair.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same timing estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same frequency estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same Doppler spread estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is further dependent on one or more characteristics associated with at least one of the control channel or the shared channel.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of a search space, a downlink control information (DCI) format, an aggregation level, decoding candidate within the aggregation level, closed loop beamforming, open loop beamforming, localized resource allocation, distributed resource allocation, a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) type, or subframe indices associated with the control channel.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of unicast transmission, broadcast transmission, closed loop beamforming, open loop beamforming, localized resource allocation, distributed resource allocation, a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) type, or subframe indices associated with the shared channel.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same comprises determining that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same if the shared channel is a broadcast channel.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the broadcast channel is scrambled by one of a paging radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), a system information RNTI, or a random access RNTI.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a first portion of the control channel or the shared channel is from a serving base station and at least a second portion of the control channel or the shared channel is from a non-serving base station.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving at least one of radio resource control (RRC) signaling or a signal conveyed in the control channel indicating one of a set of RRC-configured states and wherein the determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same comprises using the at least one of the RRC signaling or the signal.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the at least one of the RRC signaling or the signal comprises one or more system parameters.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is further based on a shared channel state associated with the RRC-configured resource set.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the control channel and the shared channel comprises employing the same precoding for the control channel and the shared channel.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving signaling indicating whether the same precoding may be employed for the control channel and the shared channel.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the signaling comprises an indication that an RRC-configured resource set is associated with the control channel.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same comprises determining if both the control channel and the shared channel are associated with the same non-zero power (NZP) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource.

30. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a control channel and a shared channel within a subframe; and

a processing system configured to;

determine that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel in the received subframe are substantially the same,

wherein the one or more channel properties comprise at least one of a delay spread, a receive power, a frequency shift, a Doppler spread, or a receiver timing, and

wherein the determination that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is based on a radio resource control (RRC)-configured resource set associated with the control channel;

determine that the control channel and the shared channel are quasi co-located based on the determination that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same; and

process the control channel and the shared channel based on the determination that the control channel and the shared channel are quasi co-located.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the control channel comprises an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH).

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the ePDCCH uses at least one of antenna ports 107-110.

33. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the shared channel comprises a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the PDSCH uses at least one of antenna ports 7-14.

35. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processing system is configured to determine that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same by receiving an explicit indication that the channel properties are substantially the same.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the explicit indication comprises at least one of radio resource control (RRC) signaling or a signal conveyed in the control channel.

37. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processing system is configured to determine that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same by using an implicit indication that the channel properties are substantially the same.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein using the implicit indication comprises determining that both the control channel and the shared channel use effectively the same cell identifiers (IDs) in the subframe.

39. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein each cell ID is a virtual cell ID, separately configured from a physical cell ID associated with a cell.

40. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processing system is configured to process the control channel and the shared channel by using the same channel estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein using the same channel estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same channel estimation for corresponding antenna ports between the control and shared channels.

42. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein using the same channel estimation comprises using the same channel estimation if corresponding resource blocks between the control and the shared channels belong to the same physical resource block pair.

43. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processing system is configured to process the control channel and the shared channel by using the same timing estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

44. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processing system is configured to process the control channel and the shared channel by using the same frequency estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

45. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processing system is configured to process the control channel and the shared channel by using the same Doppler spread estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

46. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processing system is further configured to determine that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same based on one or more characteristics associated with at least one of the control channel or the shared channel.

47. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of a search space, a downlink control information (DCI) format, an aggregation level, decoding candidate within the aggregation level, closed loop beamforming, open loop beamforming, localized resource allocation, distributed resource allocation, a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) type, or subframe indices associated with the control channel.

48. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of unicast transmission, broadcast transmission, closed loop beamforming, open loop beamforming, localized resource allocation, distributed resource allocation, a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) type, or subframe indices associated with the shared channel.

49. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the processing system is configured to determine that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same if the shared channel is a broadcast channel.

50. The apparatus of claim 49, wherein the broadcast channel is scrambled by one of a paging radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), a system information RNTI, or a random access RNTI.

51. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein at least a first portion of the control channel or the shared channel is from a serving base station and at least a second portion of the control channel or the shared channel is from a non-serving base station.

52. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the receiver is configured to receive at least one of radio resource control (RRC) signaling or a signal conveyed in the control channel indicating one of a set of RRC-configured states and wherein the processing system is configured to determine that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same by using the at least one of the RRC signaling or the signal.

53. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the at least one of the RRC signaling or the signal comprises one or more system parameters.

54. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processing system is further configured to determine that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same based on a shared channel state associated with the RRC-configured resource set.

55. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processing system is configured to process the control channel and the shared channel by employing the same precoding for the control channel and the shared channel.

56. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the receiver is further configured to receive signaling indicating whether the same precoding may be employed for the control channel and the shared channel.

57. The apparatus of claim 56, wherein the signaling comprises an indication that an RRC-configured resource set is associated with the control channel.

58. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processing system is configured to determine that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same by determining if both the control channel and the shared channel are associated with the same non-zero power (NZP) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource.

59. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

means for receiving a control channel and a shared channel within a subframe;

means for determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel in the received subframe are substantially the same,

wherein the one or more channel properties comprise at least one of a delay spread, a receive power, a frequency shift, a Doppler spread, or a receiver timing, and

wherein the means for determining is configured to determine that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel in the subframe are substantially the same based on a radio resource control (RRC)-configured resource set associated with the control channel;

means for determining that the control channel and the shared channel are quasi co-located based on the determination that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same; and

means for processing the control channel and the shared channel based on the determination that the control channel and the shared channel are quasi co-located.

60. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the control channel comprises an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH).

61. The apparatus of claim 60, wherein the ePDCCH uses at least one of antenna ports 107-110.

62. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the shared channel comprises a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

63. The apparatus of claim 62, wherein the PDSCH uses at least one of antenna ports 7-14.

64. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is configured to receive an explicit indication that the channel properties are substantially the same.

65. The apparatus of claim 64, wherein the explicit indication comprises at least one of radio resource control (RRC) signaling or a signal conveyed in the control channel.

66. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is configured to use an implicit indication that the channel properties are substantially the same.

67. The apparatus of claim 66, wherein using the implicit indication comprises determining that both the control channel and the shared channel use effectively the same cell identifiers (IDs) in the subframe.

68. The apparatus of claim 67, wherein each cell ID is a virtual cell ID, separately configured from a physical cell ID associated with a cell.

69. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for processing the control channel and the shared channel is configured to use the same channel estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

70. The apparatus of claim 69, wherein using the same channel estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same channel estimation for corresponding antenna ports between the control and shared channels.

71. The apparatus of claim 69, wherein using the same channel estimation comprises using the same channel estimation if corresponding resource blocks between the control and the shared channels belong to the same physical resource block pair.

72. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for processing the control channel and the shared channel is configured to use the same timing estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

73. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for processing the control channel and the shared channel is configured to use the same frequency estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

74. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for processing the control channel and the shared channel is configured to use the same Doppler spread estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

75. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is further configured to determine that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same based on one or more characteristics associated with at least one of the control channel or the shared channel.

76. The apparatus of claim 75, wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of a search space, a downlink control information (DCI) format, an aggregation level, decoding candidate within the aggregation level, closed loop beamforming, open loop beamforming, localized resource allocation, distributed resource allocation, a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) type, or subframe indices associated with the control channel.

77. The apparatus of claim 75, wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of unicast transmission, broadcast transmission, closed loop beamforming, open loop beamforming, localized resource allocation, distributed resource allocation, a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) type, or subframe indices associated with the shared channel.

78. The apparatus of claim 75, wherein the means for determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is configured to determine that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same if the shared channel is a broadcast channel.

79. The apparatus of claim 78, wherein the broadcast channel is scrambled by one of a paging radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), a system information RNTI, or a random access RNTI.

80. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein at least a first portion of the control channel or the shared channel is from a serving base station and at least a second portion of the control channel or the shared channel is from a non-serving base station.

81. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for receiving is configured to receive at least one of radio resource control (RRC) signaling or a signal conveyed in the control channel indicating one of a set of RRC-configured states and wherein the means for determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is configured to use the at least one of the RRC signaling or the signal.

82. The apparatus of claim 81, wherein the at least one of the RRC signaling or the signal comprises one or more system parameters.

83. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is further configured to determine that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel in the subframe are substantially the same based on a shared channel state associated with the RRC-configured resource set.

84. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein processing the control channel and the shared channel comprises employing the same precoding for the control channel and the shared channel.

85. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for receiving is further configured to receive signaling indicating whether the same precoding may be employed for the control channel and the shared channel.

86. The apparatus of claim 85, wherein the signaling comprises an indication that an RRC-configured resource set is associated with the control channel.

87. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is configured to determine if both the control channel and the shared channel are associated with the same non-zero power (NZP) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource.

88. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising code for:

receiving a control channel and a shared channel within a subframe;

determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel in the received subframe are substantially the same,

wherein the one or more channel properties comprise at least one of a delay spread, a receive power, a frequency shift, a Doppler spread, or a receiver timing, and

wherein the determining is based on a radio resource control (RRC)-configured resource set associated with the control channel;

determining that the control channel and the shared channel are quasi co-located based on the determination that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same; and

processing the control channel and the shared channel based on the determination that the control channel and the shared channel are quasi co-located.

89. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein the control channel comprises an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH).

90. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 89, wherein the ePDCCH uses at least one of antenna ports 107-110.

91. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein the shared channel comprises a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

92. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 91, wherein the PDSCH uses at least one of antenna ports 7-14.

93. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein determining that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same comprises receiving an explicit indication that the channel properties are substantially the same.

94. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 93, wherein the explicit indication comprises at least one of radio resource control (RRC) signaling or a signal conveyed in the control channel.

95. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein determining that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same comprises using an implicit indication that the channel properties are substantially the same.

96. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 95, wherein using the implicit indication comprises determining that both the control channel and the shared channel use effectively the same cell identifiers (IDs) in the subframe.

97. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 96, wherein each cell ID is a virtual cell ID, separately configured from a physical cell ID associated with a cell.

98. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein processing the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same channel estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

99. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 98, wherein using the same channel estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same channel estimation for corresponding antenna ports between the control and shared channels.

100. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 98, wherein using the same channel estimation comprises using the same channel estimation if corresponding resource blocks between the control and the shared channels belong to the same physical resource block pair.

101. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein processing the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same timing estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

102. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein processing the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same frequency estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

103. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein processing the control channel and the shared channel comprises using the same Doppler spread estimation for both the control channel and the shared channel.

104. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein determining that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is further dependent on one or more characteristics associated with at least one of the control channel or the shared channel.

105. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 104, wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of a search space, a downlink control information (DCI) format, an aggregation level, decoding candidate within the aggregation level, closed loop beamforming, open loop beamforming, localized resource allocation, distributed resource allocation, a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) type, or subframe indices associated with the control channel.

106. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 104, wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of unicast transmission, broadcast transmission, closed loop beamforming, open loop beamforming, localized resource allocation, distributed resource allocation, a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) type, or subframe indices associated with the shared channel.

107. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 104, wherein the determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same comprises determining that the one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same if the shared channel is a broadcast channel.

108. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 107, wherein the broadcast channel is scrambled by one of a paging radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), a system information RNTI, or a random access RNTI.

109. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein at least a first portion of the control channel or the shared channel is from a serving base station and at least a second portion of the control channel or the shared channel is from a non-serving base station.

110. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, further comprising code for receiving at least one of radio resource control (RRC) signaling or a signal conveyed in the control channel indicating one of a set of RRC-configured states, wherein the determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same comprises using the at least one of the RRC signaling or the signal.

111. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 110, wherein the at least one of the RRC signaling or the signal comprises one or more system parameters.

112. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein the determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same is further based on a shared channel state associated with the RRC-configured resource set.

113. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein processing the control channel and the shared channel comprises employing the same precoding for the control channel and the shared channel.

114. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, further comprising code for receiving signaling indicating whether the same precoding may be employed for the control channel and the shared channel.

115. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 114, wherein the signaling comprises an indication that an RRC-configured resource set is associated with the control channel.

116. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 88, wherein the determining that one or more channel properties of the control channel and the shared channel are substantially the same comprises determining if both the control channel and the shared channel are associated with the same non-zero power (NZP) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource.