Group resource allocation techniques for IEEE 802.16m

• US 8,351,533 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2009
• Issued: 01/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Shrivastava, Shweta, Vannithamby, Rath
• Primary Examiner(s): Ometz, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Garcia, Santiago
• Application Number:
  US12/651,338
• Publication Number:
  US 20100266057A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,104 Days
• Field of Search: 375/267
• US Class Current: 375/267
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0091 Signaling for the administration of the divided path
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/121 for groups of terminals or users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Group resource allocation techniques for IEEE 802.16m are generally presented. In this regard a method is introduced comprising generating a plurality of bitmaps to identify resource allocations and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) modes for a group of broadband wireless mobile stations, wherein each mobile station in the group is assigned a position within a user bitmap to identify whether the mobile station is allocated frame resources and wherein the position within one or more MIMO bitmap(s) to identify a MIMO mode, and transmitting the bitmaps in a group resource allocation (GRA) information element (IE) of a broadband wireless media access protocol (MAP) frame portion. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating a plurality of bitmaps for signaling resource allocations to a group of broadband wireless mobile stations, the plurality of bitmaps including at least a user bitmap and a plurality of operational parameter bitmaps including a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) modes bitmap and a bitmap for indicating resource sharing, wherein each mobile station in the group is assigned a position within the user bitmap to identify whether the mobile station is allocated frame resources and wherein the MIMO modes bitmap signals to mobile stations identified as being allocated resources according to the user bitmap whether the MIMO mode for a mobile station is a single user MIMO (SU-MIMO) or a multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO); and

transmitting the plurality of bitmaps to the group of mobile stations in a group resource allocation (GRA) information element (IE) of a broadband wireless media access protocol (MAP) frame portion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of bitmaps further comprises a MU-MIMO ID bitmap with one bit per MU-MIMO assigned mobile station to indicate whether the MU-MIMO assigned mobile stations are paired at their current location or at the location of another mobile station.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the MIMO modes bitmap having four bits associated with each mobile station in the group of mobile stations allocated resources according to the user bitmap for signaling for each mobile station a MIMO encoder format (MEF), a number of streams (Mt), and a stream indicator (SI) indicating a preferred subband stream.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising a resource allocation bitmap and a burst size bitmap having, wherein the burst size bitmap includes two bits per mobile station to only indicate the burst size of a mobile station by determining locations of resources for the mobile station using the RA bitmap thereby eliminating the need to identify a resource size.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising a pairing bitmap to indicate to MU-MIMO mobile stations paired to another mobile stations'"'"' location an index of the mobile station with which it is paired.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a second user bitmap to indicate mobile stations that are scheduled and a deletion bitmap to identify whether mobile stations are deleted from the group and an identification of mobile stations removed from the scheduled group of mobile stations indicated in the second user bitmap.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising acknowledging deletion by deleted mobile stations contiguous with acknowledging data allocations for scheduled mobile stations.

8. A method comprising:

receiving, at group of broadband wireless mobile stations, a plurality of bitmaps, including at least a user bitmap and a plurality of operational parameter bitmaps including a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) modes bitmap and a bitmap for indicating resource sharing, in a group resource allocation (GRA) information element (IE) of a broadband wireless media access protocol (MAP) frame portion;

parsing the plurality of bitmaps, including parsing the user bitmap to identify resource allocations for the group of broadband wireless mobile stations and parsing the MIMO modes bitmap to identify whether a MIMO mode for a mobile station, allocated frame resources according to the user bitmap, is a single user MIMO (SU-MIMO) or a multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO); and

accessing allocated frame resources based on the parsing of the bitmaps.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of bitmaps further comprises a MU-MIMO ID bitmap with one bit per MU-MIMO assigned mobile station to indicate whether the MU-MIMO assigned mobile stations are paired at their current location or at the location of another mobile station.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the a MIMO modes bitmap having four bits associated with each mobile station in the group of mobile stations allocated resources according to the user bitmap for signaling for each mobile station a MIMO encoder format (MEF), a number of streams (Mt), and a stream indicator (SI) indicating a preferred subband stream.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising a resource allocation bitmap and a burst size bitmap having, wherein the burst size bitmap includes two bits per mobile station to only indicate the burst size of a mobile station by determining locations of resources for the mobile station using the RA bitmap thereby eliminating the need to identify a resource size.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising a pairing bitmap to indicate to MU-MIMO mobile stations paired to another mobile stations'"'"' location an index of the mobile station with which it is paired.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating a second user bitmap to indicate mobile stations that are scheduled and a deletion bitmap to identify whether mobile stations are deleted from the group and an identification of mobile stations removed from the scheduled group of mobile stations indicated in the second user bitmap.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising acknowledging deletion by deleted mobile stations contiguous with acknowledging data allocations for scheduled mobile stations.

15. A system comprising:

a processor to generate a plurality of bitmaps for signaling resource allocations to a group of broadband wireless mobile stations, the plurality of bitmaps including at least a user bitmap and a plurality of operational parameter bitmaps including a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) modes bitmap and a bitmap and a bitmap for indicating resource sharing, wherein each mobile station in the group is assigned a position within the user bitmap to identify whether the mobile station is allocated frame resources and wherein the MIMO modes bitmap signals to mobile stations identified as being allocated resources according to the user bitmap whether the MIMO mode for a mobile station is single user MIMO (SU-MIMO) or a multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO); and

a transmitter to transmit the plurality of bitmaps to the group of mobile stations in a group resource allocation (GRA) information element (IE) of a broadband wireless media access protocol (MAP) frame portion.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the plurality of bitmaps further comprises a MU-MIMO ID bitmap with one bit per MU-MIMO assigned mobile station to indicate whether the MU-MIMO assigned mobile stations are paired at their current location or at the location of another mobile station.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising a resource allocation bitmap and a burst size bitmap having, wherein the burst size bitmap includes two bits per mobile station to only indicate the burst size of a mobile station by determining locations of resources for the mobile station using the RA bitmap thereby eliminating the need to identify a resource size.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the a MIMO modes bitmap having four bits associated with each mobile station in the group of mobile stations allocated resources according to the user bitmap for signaling for each mobile station a MIMO encoder format (MEF), a number of streams (Mt), and a stream indicator (SI) indicating a preferred subband stream.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising a pairing bitmap to indicate to MU-MIMO mobile stations paired to another mobile stations'"'"' location an index of the mobile station with which it is paired.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising a resource offset bitmap to indicate to MU-MIMO mobile stations paired to another mobile stations'"'"' location a direct resource location.