SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SHARING A CONTROL CHANNEL FOR CARRIER AGGREGATION

• US 20180331810A1
• Filed: 06/13/2018
• Published: 11/15/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Golden Valley Holdings Limited (BBK Electronics Corp., Inc.), Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Limited
• Original Assignee: Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Limited
• Inventors: McBeath, Sean, Fong, Mo-han, Cai, Zhijun, Earnshaw, Mark, Heo, Youn Hyong
• Granted Patent: US 10,693,617 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• 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 5/0091 Signaling for the administration of the divided path

Abstract

A method for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) to identify at least one of an uplink and a downlink resource allocated by a resource grant within a multi-carrier communication system wherein resource grants are specified by control channel element (CCE) subset candidates, the method comprising the steps of identifying the number of configured carriers used to communicate with the access device, based on the number of configured carriers used to communicate with the access device, identifying a number of CCE subset candidates to decode and decoding up to the identified number of CCE subset candidates in an attempt to identify the resource grant.

Claims

1-31. -31. (canceled)

32. A method performed by a network access device of a wireless communication system, comprising:

transmitting, to a user equipment, signaling indicating a first carrier index associated with the first carrier and a second carrier index associated with the second carrier;

determining a first search space and a second search space associated with the user equipment, the first search space including a first group of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates, and the second search space including a second group of PDCCH candidates, wherein the first group of PDCCH candidates is used to transmit resource grants for the first carrier, and the second group of PDCCH candidates is used to transmit resource grants for the second carrier; and

transmitting a resource grant to the user equipment via at least one PDCCH candidate of the first group of PDCCH candidates or the second group of PDCCH candidates, the resource grant including a field identifying the first carrier index or the second carrier index.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein transmitting a resource grant comprises transmitting the resource grant for the first carrier via the first group of PDCCH candidates.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein transmitting a resource grant comprises transmitting the resource grant for the second carrier via the second group of PDCCH candidates.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein, for an aggregation level 1, each PDCCH candidate of the first and second groups includes a single control channel element.

36. The method of claim 32, wherein, for an aggregation level 2, each PDCCH candidate of the first and second groups includes two control channel elements.

37. The method of claim 32, wherein, for an aggregation level 4, each PDCCH candidate of the first and second groups includes four control channel elements.

38. The method of claim 32, wherein, for an aggregation level 8, each PDCCH candidate of the first and second groups includes eight control channel elements.

39. The method of claim 32, wherein the first group and the second group are located sequentially within a set of control channel elements.

40. The method of claim 32, wherein the field is a three-bit field.

41. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

when the at least one PDCCH candidate includes an overlapping PDCCH candidate of the first and second groups of PDCCH candidates, transmitting resource grants for the first carrier or the second carrier via the at least one PDCCH candidate, based on priorities of the first carrier or the second carrier, respectively.

42. A network access device of a wireless communication system, comprising:

a transmitter; and

a processor configured to;

control the transmitter to transmit, to a user equipment, signaling indicating a first carrier index associated with the first carrier and a second carrier index associated with the second carrier;

determine a first search space and a second search space associated with the user equipment, the first search space including a first group of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates, and the second search space including a second group of PDCCH candidates, wherein the first group of PDCCH candidates is used to transmit resource grants for the first carrier, and the second group of PDCCH candidates is used to transmit resource grants for the second carrier; and

control the transmitter to transmit a resource grant to the user equipment via at least one PDCCH candidate of the first group of PDCCH candidates or the second group of PDCCH candidates, the resource grant including a field identifying the first carrier index or the second carrier index.

43. The network access device of claim 42, wherein the processor is further configured to:

control the transmitter to transmit a resource grant for the first carrier via the first group of PDCCH candidates.

44. The network access device of claim 42, wherein the processor is further configured to:

control the transmitter to transmit a resource grant for the second carrier via the second group of PDCCH candidates.

45. The network access device of claim 42, wherein, for an aggregation level 1, each PDCCH candidate of the first and second groups includes a single control channel element.

46. The network access device of claim 42, wherein, for an aggregation level 2, each PDCCH candidate of the first and second groups includes two control channel elements.

47. The network access device of claim 42, wherein, for an aggregation level 4, each PDCCH candidate of the first and second groups includes four control channel elements.

48. The network access device of claim 42, wherein, for an aggregation level 8, each PDCCH candidate of the first and second groups includes eight control channel elements.

49. The network access device of claim 42, wherein the first group and the second group are located sequentially within a set of control channel elements.

50. The network access device of claim 42, wherein the field is a three-bit field.

51. The network access device of claim 42, wherein the processor is further configured to:

when the at least one PDCCH candidate includes an overlapping PDCCH candidate of the first and second groups of PDCCH candidates, control the transmitter to transmit resource grants for the first carrier or the second carrier via the at least one PDCCH candidate, based on priorities of the first carrier or the second carrier, respectively.