System and method to address resource collision for asymmetric region allocation

• US 9,887,822 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2015
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Xiong, Gang, Chatterjee, Debdeep, Han, Seunghee, Fwu, Jong-kae
• Primary Examiner(s): Orgad, Edan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Latorre, Ivan O
• Application Number:
  US14/692,510
• Publication Number:
  US 20160128055A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,022 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1861 Physical mapping arrangements for ACK signaling see also H04L5/0053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1864 ARQ related signaling H04L1/1607 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1896 ARQ related signaling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0044 allocation of payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties

Abstract

Embodiments described herein relate generally to a communication between a user equipment (UE) and an evolved Node B (eNB). An eNB may allocated uplink and downlink regions associated with machine-type communication (MTC) to a UE. The allocation of uplink and downlink regions may be asymmetric. The eNB may identify parameters based on this asymmetric region allocation to avoid resource collision during communication of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK) feedback between the eNB and the UE. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Claims

1. An evolved Node B (eNB) comprising:

allocation circuitry to;

allocate, in association with transmission to a user equipment (UE), a plurality of downlink machine-type communication (MTC) regions; and

allocate, in association with reception from the UE, one or more uplink MTC regions, wherein the plurality of downlink MTC regions and the one or more uplink MTC regions are separated by frequency; and

scheduling circuitry, coupled with the allocation circuitry, the scheduling circuitry to;

determine the one or more uplink MTC regions are fewer in number than the plurality of downlink MTC regions;

identify, based on the determination that the one or more uplink MTC regions are fewer in number than the plurality of downlink MTC regions, one or more parameters associated with one or more resources to be used for communication of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK) feedback between the eNB and the UE, wherein the one or more parameters includes a region index associated with a first region of the downlink MTC regions, and wherein a resource index for the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback is a function of the region index; and

cause transmission of the one or more parameters to the UE,

wherein a bandwidth for MTC-type transmissions is greater than 1.4 MHz.

2. The eNB of claim 1, wherein the communication of the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback comprises communication through a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH).

3. The eNB of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameters are transmitted to the UE using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

4. The eNB of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameters are broadcast in a system information block (SIB) or a master information block (MIB).

5. The eNB of claim 1, wherein to identify the one or more parameters comprises to configure a resource index specific to the UE to be used on a channel used for the communication of the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback.

6. The eNB of claim 1, wherein to identify the one or more parameters comprises to schedule, in association with the transmission to the UE, unicast transmissions using a narrowband physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) outside of a common search space.

7. The eNB of claim 1, wherein to identify the one or more parameters comprises to schedule a unicast transmission to the UE using a common search space having a starting control channel element (CCE) that is based on a predetermined function that takes into account an index associated with a first region of the plurality of downlink MTC regions.

8. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

communications circuitry to;

process allocation information, received from an evolved Node B (eNB), that is to indicate;

a plurality of downlink machine-type communication (MTC) regions;

one or more uplink MTC regions, the uplink MTC regions to be fewer in number than the plurality of downlink MTC regions, wherein the plurality of downlink MTC regions and the one or more uplink MTC regions are separated by frequency; and

one or more parameters associated with one or more resources to be used for communication of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK) feedback between the eNB and the UE; and

acknowledgement generation circuitry, coupled with the communications circuitry, to;

identify one or more resources based on the one or more parameters, the one or more resources to be used on a channel for the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback to avoid resource collision associated with allocation of the fewer uplink MTC regions than the downlink MTC regions, wherein the one or more parameters includes a region index associated with a first region of the plurality of downlink MTC regions, and wherein to identify the one or more resources based on the one or more parameters includes to compute at least one resource for the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback based on a predetermined function that takes into account the region index; and

cause, in association with data received from the eNB, transmission of the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback using the one or more identified resources,

wherein a bandwidth for MTC-type transmissions is greater than 1.4 MHz.

9. The UE of claim 8, wherein the acknowledgement generation circuitry is to cause transmission of the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback using the one or more resources on a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH).

10. The UE of claim 8, wherein at least a portion of the allocation information received from the eNB is to be received through radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a system information block (SIB), or a master information block (MIB).

11. The UE of claim 8, wherein to compute the at least one resource for the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback based on the predetermined function that takes into account the region index comprises to compute the at least one resource for the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback based on the predetermined function that takes into account the region index and a first control channel element (CCE).

12. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising computing device-executable instructions, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by an evolved Node B (eNB), cause the eNB to:

allocate, in association with transmission to a user equipment (UE), one or more downlink machine-type communication (MTC) regions;

allocate, in association with reception from the UE, a plurality of uplink MTC regions, wherein the one or more downlink MTC regions and the plurality of uplink MTC regions are separated by frequency;

determine the plurality of uplink MTC regions are greater in number than the one or more downlink regions;

identify, based on the determination that the plurality of uplink MTC regions are greater in number than the one or more downlink MTC regions, one or more parameters associated with one or more resources on which hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK) feedback is to be transmitted from the eNB to the UE, wherein the one or more parameters includes a region index associated with at least one of the plurality of uplink MTC regions, and wherein a resource index for the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback is a function of the region index;

cause transmission of one or more parameters to the UE; and

cause, in association with reception of data from the UE, transmission of HARQ ACK or NACK feedback to the UE on the one or more resources of a physical hybrid automatic repeat request channel (PHICH),

wherein a system bandwidth for MTC-type transmissions is greater than 1.4 MHz.

13. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising computing device-executable instructions, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to:

process allocation information, received from an evolved Node B (eNB), that is to indicate;

one or more downlink machine-type communication (MTC) regions;

a plurality of uplink MTC regions, the plurality of uplink MTC regions to be greater in number than the one or more downlink MTC regions, wherein the one or more downlink MTC regions and the plurality of uplink MTC regions are separated by frequency; and

one or more parameters associated with one or more resources to be used for communication of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK) feedback between the eNB and the UE;

identify, in association with the allocation of the greater number of uplink MTC regions than the downlink MTC regions, one or more resources based on the one or more parameters, the one or more resources to be used for HARQ ACK or NACK feedback to avoid resource collision associated with the allocation of the greater number of uplink MTC regions than the downlink MTC regions, wherein the one or more parameters includes a region index associated with at least one of the plurality uplink MTC regions, and wherein a resource index for the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback is a function of the region index; and

detect, in association with data transmitted to the eNB, reception of HARQ ACK or NACK feedback through a physical hybrid automatic repeat request channel (PHICH) using the identified one or more resources,

wherein a system bandwidth for MTC-type transmissions is greater than 1.4 MHz.