SYSTEM AND METHOD TO ADDRESS RESOURCE COLLISION FOR ASYMMETRIC REGION ALLOCATION

• US 20160128055A1
• Filed: 04/21/2015
• Published: 05/05/2016
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 9,887,822 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 regions associated with machine-type communication (MTC); and

allocate, in association with reception from the UE, one or more uplink regions associated with MTC; and

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

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

identify, based on the determination that the one or more uplink regions are fewer in number than the one or more downlink 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.

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 an offset value associated with a resource index on a channel used for the communication of the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback.

6. The eNB of claim 5, wherein the offset value is specific to the UE, to a cell provided by the eNB, or to a first region of the downlink regions.

7. The eNB of claim 1, wherein to identify the one or more parameters comprises to determine a region index associated with a first region of the downlink regions.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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 regions.

11. 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 regions associated with machine-type communication (MTC);

one or more uplink regions associated with MTC, the uplink regions to be fewer in number than the plurality of downlink regions; 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 HARQ ACK or NACK feedback to avoid resource collision associated with the allocation of the fewer uplink regions than the downlink regions; and

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

12. The UE of claim 11, 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).

13. The UE of claim 11, wherein at least a portion of the allocation information is to be received through radio resource control (RRC) signaling, system information block (SIB), or a master information block (MIB).

14. The UE of claim 11, wherein the one or more parameters comprise an offset value, and wherein to identify the one or more resources based on the one or more parameters comprises to compute at least one resource for the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback based on the offset value and a first control channel element (CCE).

15. The UE of claim 14, wherein the offset value comprises a value that is specific to the UE, specific to a cell provided by the eNB, or specific to a first region of the downlink regions.

16. The UE of claim 11, wherein the one or more parameters comprises a resource index, and wherein to identify the one or more resources based on the one or more parameters comprises to include the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback in a resource corresponding to the resource index.

17. The UE of claim 11, wherein the one or more parameters comprises an index associated with a first region of the plurality of downlink regions, and wherein to identify the one or more resources based on the one or more parameters comprises to compute at least one resource for the HARQ ACK or NACK feedback based on a predetermined function that takes into account the index and a first control channel element (CCE).

18. 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 regions associated with machine-type communication (MTC);

allocate, in association with reception from the UE, a plurality of uplink regions associated with MTC;

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

identify, based on the determination that the plurality of uplink regions are greater in number than the one or more downlink 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;

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).

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the one or more parameters comprise a region index associated with at least one of the one or more uplink regions, and wherein to cause transmission of the one or more parameters comprises to cause transmission of the region index.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the one or more parameters comprise an indication of a starting physical resource block (PRB) of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission and a downlink system bandwidth.

21. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 20, wherein the downlink system bandwidth is greater than 1.4 megahertz (MHz).

22. 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 regions associated with machine-type communication (MTC);

a plurality of uplink regions associated with MTC, the plurality of uplink regions to be greater in number than the one or more downlink regions; 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 regions than the downlink 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 regions than the downlink regions; 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.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 22, wherein the one or more parameters comprise a region index associated with at least one of the one or more uplink regions, and wherein to identify the one or more resources comprises to compute the one or more resources based on a predetermined function that takes into account the region index.

24. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 22, wherein the one or more parameters comprise an indication of a starting physical resource block (PRB) of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission and a downlink system bandwidth, and wherein to identify the one or more resources comprises to derive the one or more resources from the staring PRB and the downlink system bandwidth.

25. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 24, wherein the downlink system bandwidth is greater than 1.4 megahertz (MHz).