Providing a downlink control structure in a first carrier to indicate information in a second, different carrier

• US 9,913,276 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2016
• Issued: 03/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Tee, Lai King, Song, Yi, Li, Jun, Tang, Yuqiang, Wang, Neng
• Primary Examiner(s): Elpenord, Candal
• Application Number:
  US15/294,979
• Publication Number:
  US 20170034828A1
• Time in Patent Office: 505 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A mobile station receives a downlink control structure in a first carrier, where the downlink control structure indicates that control information for the mobile station is on a second, different carrier. The mobile station decodes the control information in the second carrier, where the control information specifies resource allocation of a wireless link for the mobile station. More specifically, according to some implementations, the control channel in the first carrier specifies the resource allocation for an extended control channel in the second carrier, where the extended control channel specifies the resource allocation for traffic data of a wireless link for the mobile station.

Claims

1. A mobile station, comprising:

wireless communication circuitry, configured to perform wireless communication with at least a base station; and

processing hardware coupled to the wireless communication circuitry, wherein the processing hardware is configured to operate with the wireless communication circuitry to;

receive, from a base station, control information in resource blocks (RBs) of a physical downlink shared channel region on a first component carrier among a plurality of component carriers, wherein the plurality of component carriers comprises the first component carrier and a second component carrier, wherein the physical downlink shared channel region is located within orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols following a physical downlink control channel region in a subframe, wherein the second component carrier is different than the first component carrier, wherein the control information indicates a resource assignment for the mobile station on the second component carrier, and wherein the second carrier is identified in the control information of the first component carrier by a component carrier number; and

communicate with the base station using the control information of the first component carrier and the resource assignment on the second component carrier.

2. The mobile station of claim 1,

wherein the processing hardware is further configured to operate with the wireless communication circuitry to:

receive, from the base station, higher layer signaling indicating information for locating control information on at least the first component carrier among the plurality of component carriers.

3. The mobile station of claim 1,

wherein each component carrier among the plurality of component carriers appears as a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) carrier.

4. The mobile station of claim 1,

wherein each component carrier among the plurality of component carriers has a separate physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), and physical hybrid automatic repeat request indicator channel (PHICH).

5. The mobile station of claim 1,

wherein to communicate with the base station, the processing hardware is further configured to operate with the wireless communication circuitry to receive data from the base station using both the first carrier and the second carrier.

6. The mobile station of claim 1,

wherein the processing hardware is further configured to operate with the wireless communication circuitry to communicate with the base station to establish carrier aggregation of the plurality of carriers for the mobile station.

7. The mobile station of claim 1,

wherein the first and second carriers are non-contiguous.

8. The mobile station of claim 1,

wherein the processing hardware is further configured to operate with the wireless communication circuitry to receive a downlink control structure from the base station that indicates that the control information is on the first carrier;

wherein receiving the control information is based on the downlink control structure.

9. The mobile station of claim 1,

wherein the RBs are divided into resource element groups (REGs) and control channel elements (CCEs) that are configured for signaling to a plurality of mobile stations.

10. A non-transitory, computer accessible memory medium storing program instructions executable by a processor of a mobile station to:

receive, from a base station, control information in resource blocks (RBs) of a physical downlink shared channel region on a first component carrier among a plurality of component carriers, wherein the plurality of component carriers comprises the first component carrier and a second component carrier, wherein the physical downlink shared channel region is located within orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols following a physical downlink control channel region in a subframe, wherein the second component carrier is different than the first component carrier, wherein the control information indicates a resource assignment for the mobile station on the second component carrier, and wherein the second carrier is identified in the control information of the first component carrier by a component carrier number; and

communicate with the base station using the control information of the first component carrier and the resource assignment on the second component carrier.

11. The non-transitory, computer accessible memory medium of claim 10,

wherein the program instructions are further executable to receive, from the base station, higher layer signaling indicating information for locating control information on at least the first component carrier among the plurality of component carriers.

12. The non-transitory, computer accessible memory medium of claim 10,

wherein each component carrier among the plurality of component carriers appears as a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) carrier.

13. The non-transitory, computer accessible memory medium of claim 10,

wherein each component carrier among the plurality of component carriers has a separate physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), and physical hybrid automatic repeat request indicator channel (PHICH).

14. The non-transitory, computer accessible memory medium of claim 10,

wherein to communicate with the base station, the program instructions are further executable to receive data from the base station using both the first carrier and the second carrier.

15. The non-transitory, computer accessible memory medium of claim 10,

wherein the program instructions are further executable to communicate with the base station to establish carrier aggregation of the plurality of carriers for the mobile station.

16. A method for wireless communication, comprising:

a mobile station,

receiving, from a base station, control information in resource blocks (RBs) of a physical downlink shared channel region on a first component carrier among a plurality of component carriers, wherein the plurality of component carriers comprises the first component carrier and a second component carrier, wherein the physical downlink shared channel region is located within orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols following a physical downlink control channel region in a subframe, wherein the second component carrier is different than the first component carrier, wherein the control information indicates a resource assignment for the mobile station on the second component carrier, and wherein the second carrier is identified in the control information of the first component carrier by a component carrier number; and

performing communication with the base station using the control information of the first component carrier and the resource assignment on the second component carrier.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

the mobile station,

receiving, from the base station, higher layer signaling indicating information for locating control information on at least the first component carrier among the plurality of component carriers.

18. The method of claim 16,

wherein each component carrier among the plurality of component carriers appears as a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) carrier.

19. The method of claim 16,

wherein each component carrier among the plurality of component carriers has a separate physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), and physical hybrid automatic repeat request indicator channel (PHICH).

20. The method of claim 16,

wherein the RBs are divided into resource element groups (REGs) and control channel elements (CCEs) that are configured for signaling to a plurality of mobile stations.