METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SENDING AND RECEIVING DOWNLINK CONTROL CHANNEL

• US 20180234952A1
• Filed: 07/27/2016
• Published: 08/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: SHI, Jing, CHEN, Xianming, DAI, Bo, XIA, Shuqiang, ZHANG, Wen, LIU, Kun, FANG, Huiying
• Granted Patent: US 10,477,532 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0073 Allocation arrangements that take into account other cell interferences for intercell interference mitigation or co-ordination in orthogonal multiplex systems H04J11/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0085 when channel conditions change
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/006 in the downlink, i.e. towards the terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for sending and receiving a downlink control channel. The method comprises: a base station determines position(s) of one or more search spaces according to at least one of a coverage level and a message type, and sends a downlink control channel in the search space, the coverage level comprising at least a non-coverage enhanced level (CE0) and coverage enhanced levels (CE1, CE2, CE3), the message type comprising at least random access response (RAR), paging, radio resource control (RRC), and transmission power control (TPC); the search space comprising: a collective search space (CSS), a dedicated search space (dedicated SS), and a non-user search space (non-USS); and the position of the search space comprising: a narrow-band/frequency domain position, a time domain position, and a set position.

Claims

1. A method for sending a downlink control channel, applied to a base station, the method comprising:

determining one or more Search Space (SS) positions according to at least one of a coverage level and a message type, and sending a downlink control channel in an SS,

the coverage level comprising at least one of a non-coverage enhancement level CE0 and coverage enhancement levels CE1, CE2 and CE3, the message type comprising at least one of Random Access Response (RAR), Paging, Radio Resource Control (RRC) and Transmission Power Control (TPC), the SS comprising at least one of a Common Search Space (CSS), a dedicated SS and a non-User Equipment (UE)-specific Search Space (non-USS), and the SS position comprising at least one of a narrowband/frequency domain position, a time domain position and a set position.

2. The method for sending a downlink control channel according to claim 1, further comprising:

sending the SS position to a terminal by means of a predefined manner or a System Information Block (SIB) information configuration manner.

3. The method for sending a downlink control channel according to claim 1, wherein determining an SS position according to a coverage level comprises:

determining that CE1, CE2 and CE3 use respective SS positions;

or

determining that CE1, CE2 and CE3 use the same SS position;

or

determining that CE1 and CE2 use a first SS position and CE3 uses a second SS position.

4. The method for sending a downlink control channel according to claim 3, wherein determining an SS position according to a coverage level further comprises:

determining that, when CE1, CE2 and CE3 use respective SS positions, CE0 uses a fourth SS position or shares the same SS position with one of CE1, CE2 and CE3;

determining that, when CE1, CE2 and CE3 use the same SS position, CE0 uses a fourth SS position or shares the same SS position with CE1, CE2 and CE3; and

determining that, when CE1 and CE2 use a first SS position and CE3 uses a second SS position, CE0 uses a fourth SS position or one of the first SS position and the second SS position,

and wherein Physical Resource Block (PRB) resources contained in any two different SS positions are different at least partially.

5. The method for sending a downlink control channel according to claim 3, wherein determining an SS position according to a coverage level further comprises:

determining that different message types use respective SS positions and different coverage levels of the same message type also use respective SS positions;

or

determining that different message types use respective SS positions and different coverage levels of the same message type use the same SS position.

6. The method for sending a downlink control channel according to claim 1, wherein determining an SS position according to a message type comprises:

determining that different message types use respective SS positions;

or

determining that all message types use the same SS position;

or

determining that some of the message types use the same SS position.

7. The method for sending a downlink control channel according to claim 6, wherein determining an SS position according to a message type further comprises:

determining that different coverage levels use respective SS positions and different message types in the same coverage level use respective SS positions;

or

determining that different coverage levels use respective SS positions and different message types in the same coverage level use the same SS position;

or

determining that different coverage levels use respective SS positions and some of the message types in the same coverage level use the same SS position;

or

determining that different coverage levels use the same SS position and different message types use respective SS positions;

or

determining that different coverage levels use the same SS position and different message types use the same SS position;

or

determining that different coverage levels use the same SS position and some of the message types use the same SS position.

8. The method for sending a downlink control channel according to claim 7, wherein when the message type is an RAR, the method further comprises:

determining that, in case of mixed transmission of an RAR message corresponding to different coverage levels, an SS corresponding to Downlink Control Information (DCI) for scheduling the RAR message is located at a narrowband/frequency domain position at the same subframe, determining that there are a plurality of R values in {aggregation level L, repetition times R} of the SS, and determining the R values according to the coverage levels corresponding to the RAR message; and

determining, when only an RAR message corresponding to the same coverage level is used for transmission, a narrowband/frequency domain position of an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling the RAR message according to the coverage level, and determining an R value in {L, R} of the SS as one or more R values according to the coverage level.

9. The method for sending a downlink control channel according to claim 8, wherein determining the R values according to the coverage levels corresponding to the RAR message comprises:

determining that there is one-to-one correspondence between the R values and the coverage levels corresponding to the RAR message;

or

determining that, according to a total number of the coverage levels corresponding to the RAR message, a total number of the R values is greater than the total number of the coverage levels.

10. The method for sending a downlink control channel according to claim 6, wherein when the message type is Paging, the method further comprises:

using respective time domain positions in an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling a Paging message and in an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling other messages.

11. The method for sending a downlink control channel according to claim 10, wherein using respective time domain positions in the SSs comprises:

using, when different coverage levels use respective SS narrowband positions, respective time domain positions in an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling a Paging message and in an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling other messages;

or

using, when different coverage levels use the same SS narrowband position, respective time domain positions in an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling a Paging message and in an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling other messages.

12. A method for receiving a downlink control channel, applied to a terminal, the method comprising:

determining one or more Search Space (SS) positions according to at least one of a coverage level and a message type, and receiving a downlink control channel in an SS,

the coverage level comprising at least one of a non-coverage enhancement level CE0 and coverage enhancement levels CE1, CE2 and CE3, the message type comprising at least one of Random Access Response (RAR), Paging, Radio Resource Control (RRC) and Transmission Power Control (TPC), the SS comprising at least one of a Common Search Space (CSS), a dedicated SS and a non-User Equipment (UE)-specific Search Space (non-USS), and the SS position comprising at least one of a narrowband/frequency domain position, a time domain position and a set position.

13. The method for receiving a downlink control channel according to claim 12, further comprising:

determining the SS position according to a predefined manner or a System Information Block (SIB) information receiving manner.

14. The method for receiving a downlink control channel according to claim 12, wherein determining an SS position according to a coverage level comprises:

determining that CE1, CE2 and CE3 use respective SS positions;

or

determining that CE1, CE2 and CE3 use the same SS position;

or

determining that CE1 and CE2 use a first SS position and CE3 uses a second SS position.

15. The method for receiving a downlink control channel according to claim 14, wherein determining an SS position according to a coverage level further comprises:

determining that different message types use respective SS positions and different coverage levels of the same message type also use respective SS positions;

or

determining that different message types use respective SS positions and different coverage levels of the same message type use the same SS position.

16. The method for receiving a downlink control channel according to claim 12, wherein determining an SS position according to a message type comprises:

determining that different message types use respective SS positions;

or

determining that all message types use the same SS position;

or

determining that some of the message types use the same SS position.

17. The method for receiving a downlink control channel according to claim 16, wherein when the message type is Paging, the method further comprises:

using respective time domain positions in an SS corresponding to Downlink Control Information (DCI) for scheduling a Paging message and in an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling other messages.

18. The method for receiving a downlink control channel according to claim 17, wherein using respective time domain positions in an SS comprises:

using, when different coverage levels use respective SS narrowband positions, respective time domain positions in an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling a Paging message and in an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling other messages;

or

using, when different coverage levels use the same SS narrowband position, respective time domain positions in an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling a Paging message and in an SS corresponding to DCI for scheduling other messages.

19-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A device for receiving a downlink control channel, located at a terminal side, the device comprising:

a determination unit, configured to determine one or more Search Space (SS) positions according to at least one of a coverage level and a message type; and

a first receiving unit, configured to receive a downlink control channel in an SS,

the coverage level comprising at least one of a non-coverage enhancement level CE0 and coverage enhancement levels CE1, CE2 and CE3, the message type comprising at least one of Random Access Response (RAR), Paging, Radio Resource Control (RRC) and Transmission Power Control (TPC), the SS comprising at least one of a Common Search Space (CSS), a dedicated SS and a non-User Equipment (UE)-specific Search Space (non-USS), and the SS position comprising at least one of a narrowband/frequency domain position, a time domain position and a set position.

22. The device for receiving a downlink control channel according to claim 21, further comprising:

a second receiving unit, configured to determine the SS position according to a predefined manner or a System Information Block (SIB) information receiving manner.