Method and apparatus for separable channel state feedback in a wireless communication system

• US 8,385,452 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2009
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Gorokhov, Alexei Y.
• Primary Examiner(s): TSE, YOUNG TOI
• Application Number:
  US12/582,166
• Publication Number:
  US 20100104033A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,225 Days
• Field of Search: 375/259, 375/260, 375/267, 370/310, 370331-334, 455/24, 455/500, 455/509, 455/513, 455/69, 455/88
• US Class Current: 375/267
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2025/03808 Transmission of equaliser coefficients
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0248 Eigen-space methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/03343 Arrangements at the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0035 Resource allocation in a cooperative multipoint environment

Abstract

Systems and methodologies are described herein that facilitate the generation and use of separable, hierarchical channel state feedback in a wireless communication system. As described herein, in the event that multiple network nodes cooperate to conduct downlink transmissions to a network user, channel state feedback as reported by the network user can be separated into intra-node feedback relating to per-node channel conditions and inter-node feedback relating to relative phase and/or amplitude between channels corresponding to respective nodes. Further, a network user can select to report intra-node feedback and/or inter-node feedback based on network instructions, a cooperation strategy to be utilized by respective network nodes, or the like. As additionally described herein, respective codebooks on which inter-node and intra-node channel feedback is based can be configured to convey information relating to a partial channel description and/or to vary based on resource units (e.g., sub-bands, resource blocks, etc.) utilized for downlink communication.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying one or more intra-node codebooks comprising a set of vector quantized entries relating to per-node channel conditions and one or more inter-node codebooks comprising a set of vector quantized entries relating to channel conditions between respective associated network nodes;

selecting the one or more intra-node codebooks or inter-node codebooks from which to provide channel state feedback to an associated network node; and

providing the channel state feedback to the associated network node corresponding to at least one selected codebook.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting comprises selecting the one or more intra-node codebooks or the one or more inter-node codebooks from which to provide the channel state feedback to the associated network node based at least in part on a downlink coordination strategy employed by the associated network node or a number of transmit antennas utilized by the associated network node.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the one or more intra-node codebooks upon determining that the associated network node employs coordinated downlink transmit interference nulling.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the one or more intra-node codebooks and the one or more inter-node codebooks upon determining that the associated network node employs joint downlink transmission.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the one or more inter-node codebooks upon determining that the associated network node utilizes a single transmit antenna.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting comprises selecting the one or more intra-node codebooks or the one or more inter-node codebooks from which to provide the channel state feedback to the associated network node based at least in part on information received from the associated network node.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more inter-node codebooks comprise respective entries relating to at least one of relative amplitude between channels corresponding to the respective associated network nodes or relative phase between channels corresponding to the respective associated network nodes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one intra-node codebook or inter-node codebook comprises respective entries relating to a partial channel description, the partial channel description comprising at least one type of information selected from the group consisting of eigen-component information, recommended beam information, and recommended beam matrix information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one intra-node codebook or inter-node codebook comprises respective entries relating to channel eigen-component information, the channel eigen-component information representing respective multi-in-multi-out (MIMO) channels between respective associated receive antennas and respective associated transmit antennas corresponding to the respective associated network nodes as equivalent multi-in-single-out (MISO) channels between the respective associated transmit antennas corresponding to the respective associated network nodes and a corresponding receive combiner output.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the channel eigen-component information comprises at least one of intra-node components that correspond to the respective associated transmit antennas at the respective associated network nodes or at least one of inter-node components that correspond to at least one of relative amplitude or relative phase between the respective associated network nodes.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein respective intra-node codebooks and inter-node codebooks are constructed to match at least one of antenna configurations of the respective associated network nodes or standard observed propagation conditions.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the identifying comprises identifying respective resource units utilized by an associated communication system and identifying the one or more intra-node codebooks and the one or more inter-node codebooks that comprise respective entries constructed on a per-resource unit basis; and

the providing comprises providing the channel state feedback to the associated network node corresponding to one or more entries in the at least one selected codebook that correspond to the respective resource units to be utilized by the associated network node.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the respective resource units comprise at least one of resource blocks or frequency sub-bands.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing comprises providing the channel state feedback to the associated network node at least in part by transmitting one or more precoding indices to the associated network node that correspond to respective entries in the at least one selected codebook that substantially match measured channel conditions.

15. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a memory that stores data relating to one or more intra-node codebooks comprising a set of vector quantized entries relating to per-node channel conditions and one or more inter-node codebooks comprising a set of vector quantized entries relating to channel conditions between respective associated network nodes; and

a processor configured to select the one or more intra-node codebooks or inter-node codebooks from which to provide channel state feedback to an associated network node and to provide the channel state feedback to the associated network node corresponding to at least one selected codebook.

16. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to select the one or more intra-node codebooks or inter-node codebooks from which to provide the channel state feedback to the associated network node based at least in part on a downlink coordination strategy employed by the associated network node.

17. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to select one or more intra-node codebooks upon determining that the associated network node employs coordinated downlink transmit interference nulling.

18. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to select the one or more intra-node codebooks and the one or more inter-node codebooks upon determining that the associated network node employs joint downlink transmission.

19. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to select the one or more intra-node codebooks or inter-node codebooks from which to provide the channel state feedback to a respective one of the associated network nodes based at least in part on information received from the respective one of the associated network nodes.

20. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 15, wherein the one or more inter-node codebooks comprise respective entries relating to at least one of relative amplitude between channels corresponding to the respective associated network nodes or relative phase between channels corresponding to the respective associated network nodes.

21. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 15, wherein at least one intra-node codebook or inter-node codebook comprises respective entries relating to a partial channel description, the partial channel description comprising at least one type of information selected from the group consisting of eigen-component information, recommended beam information, and recommended beam matrix information.

22. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 15, wherein at least one intra-node codebook or inter-node codebook comprises respective entries relating to channel eigen-component information, the channel eigen-component information representing respective multi-in-multi-out (MIMO) channels between respective receive antennas at the wireless communications apparatus and respective transmit antennas at corresponding associated network nodes as equivalent multi-in-single-out (MISO) channels between the respective transmit antennas at the corresponding associated network nodes and an output of a receive combiner associated with the wireless communications apparatus.

23. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 22, wherein the channel eigen-component information comprises at least one of intra-node components that correspond to the respective transmit antennas at the respective associated network nodes or inter-node components that correspond to at least one of relative amplitude or relative phase between the respective associated network nodes.

24. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 15, wherein:

the memory further stores the data relating to respective resource units utilized by the associated network node for communication to the wireless communications apparatus on a downlink to the wireless communications apparatus;

the one or more intra-node codebooks and the one or more inter-node codebooks comprise respective entries constructed on a per-resource unit basis; and

the processor is further configured to provide the channel state feedback to the associated network node corresponding to one or more entries in the at least one selected codebook that correspond to respective resource units to be utilized by the associated network node.

25. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to provide the channel state feedback to the associated network node at least in part by transmitting one or more precoding indices to the associated network node that correspond to respective entries in the at least one selected codebook that substantially match measured channel conditions.

26. An apparatus, comprising:

means for identifying one or more per-node channel state information (CSI) codebooks and one or more inter-node CSI codebooks constructed via vector quantization;

means for selecting a per-node CSI codebook, an inter-node CSI codebook, or both the per-node CSI codebook and the inter-node CSI codebook from which channel state feedback is to be provided to one or more serving network nodes of a network having a plurality of network nodes; and

means for providing the channel state feedback to the one or more serving network nodes based on one or more selected CSI codebooks.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the means for selecting comprises means for selecting the per-node CSI codebook, the inter-node CSI codebook, or both the per-node and inter-node CSI codebooks based at least in part on a downlink coordination strategy employed by the one or more serving network nodes.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the means for selecting further comprises means for selecting the per-node CSI codebook upon determining that the one or more serving network nodes employ coordinated beamforming.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the means for selecting further comprises means for selecting the per-node CSI codebook and the inter-node CSI codebook upon determining that the one or more serving network nodes employ joint transmission.

30. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the means for selecting comprises means for selecting the per-node CSI codebook, the inter-node CSI codebook, or both the per-node CSI codebook and the inter-node CSI codebook based at least in part on information received from the one or more serving network nodes.

31. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the one or more inter-node CSI codebooks comprise respective entries relating to at least one of relative amplitude between channels corresponding to respective network nodes of the network or relative phase between channels corresponding to the respective network nodes of the network.

32. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein at least one per-node CSI codebook or inter-node CSI codebook comprises respective entries relating to a partial channel description, the partial channel description comprising at least one type of information selected from the group consisting of eigen-component information, recommended beam information, and recommended beam matrix information.

33. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein at least one per-node CSI codebook or inter-node CSI codebook comprises respective entries relating to channel eigen-component information, the channel eigen-component information representing respective multi-in-multi-out (MIMO) channels between respective associated receive antennas and respective associated transmit antennas at respective network nodes of the network as equivalent multi-in-single-out (MISO) channels between the respective associated transmit antennas at respective network nodes of the network and a corresponding receive combiner output.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the channel eigen-component information comprises at least one of per-node components that correspond to the respective associated transmit antennas at the respective network nodes of the network or inter-node components that correspond to at least one of relative amplitude or relative phase between the respective network nodes of the network.

35. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein:

the means for identifying comprises means for identifying respective resource units utilized by an associated communication system and means for identifying the one or more per-node CSI codebooks and the one or more inter-node CSI codebooks that comprise respective entries constructed on a per-resource unit basis; and

the means for providing comprises means for providing the channel state feedback to the one or more serving network nodes corresponding to one or more entries in the one or more respective selected CSI codebooks that correspond to the respective resource units to be utilized by the one or more serving network nodes.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the respective resource units comprise at least one of resource blocks or frequency sub-bands.

37. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising;

code for causing a computer to identify one or more per-node channel state information (CSI) codebooks and one or more inter-node CSI codebooks constructed via vector quantization;

code for causing the computer to select a per-node CSI codebook, an inter-node CSI codebook, or both the per-node CSI codebook and the inter-node CSI codebook from which channel state feedback is to be provided to one or more serving network nodes of a network including a plurality of network nodes; and

code for causing the computer to provide the channel state feedback to the one or more serving network nodes based on one or more selected CSI codebooks.

38. The computer program product of claim 37, wherein the code for causing the computer to select comprises code for causing the computer to select the per-node CSI codebook, the inter-node CSI codebook, or both the per-node CSI codebook and the inter-node CSI codebook based at least in part on a downlink coordination strategy employed by the one or more serving network nodes.

39. The computer program product of claim 37, wherein the code for causing the computer to select comprises code for causing the computer to select the per-node CSI codebook, the inter-node CSI codebook, or both the per-node and inter-node CSI codebooks based at least in part on information received from the one or more serving network nodes.

40. The computer program product of claim 37, wherein the one or more inter-node CSI codebooks comprise respective entries relating to at least one of relative amplitude between channels corresponding to respective network nodes of the network or relative phase between channels corresponding to the respective network nodes of the network.

41. The computer program product of claim 37, wherein:

the code for causing the computer to identify comprises code for causing the computer to identify respective resource units utilized by an associated communication system and code for causing the computer to identify the one or more per-node CSI codebooks and the one or more inter-node CSI codebooks that comprise respective entries constructed on a per-resource unit basis; and

the code for causing the computer to provide comprises code for causing the computer to provide the channel state feedback to the one or more serving network nodes corresponding to one or more entries in the one or more respective selected CSI codebooks that correspond to the respective resource units to be utilized by the one or more serving network nodes.

42. The computer program product of claim 41, wherein the respective resource units comprise at least one of resource blocks or frequency sub-bands.

43. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, if executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute a method comprising:

identifying one or more intra-node codebooks comprising a set of vector quantized entries relating to per-node channel conditions and one or more inter-node codebooks comprising a set of vector quantized entries relating to channel conditions between respective associated network nodes;

selecting the one or more intra-node codebooks or inter-node codebooks from which to provide channel state feedback to an associated network node; and

providing the channel state feedback to the associated network node corresponding to at least one selected codebook.

44. The medium of claim 43, wherein the selecting comprises selecting the one or more intra-node codebooks or the one or more inter-node codebooks from which to provide the channel state feedback to the associated network node based at least in part on a downlink coordination strategy employed by the associated network node or a number of transmit antennas utilized by the associated network node.

45. The medium of claim 44, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the one or more intra-node codebooks upon determining that the associated network node employs coordinated downlink transmit interference nulling.

46. The medium of claim 44, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the one or more intra-node codebooks and the one or more inter-node codebooks upon determining that the associated network node employs joint downlink transmission.

47. The medium of claim 44, wherein the selecting further comprises selecting the one or more inter-node codebooks upon determining that the associated network node utilizes a single transmit antenna.

48. The medium of claim 43, wherein the selecting comprises selecting the one or more intra-node codebooks or the one or more inter-node codebooks from which to provide the channel state feedback to the associated network node based at least in part on information received from the associated network node.

49. The medium of claim 43, wherein the one or more inter-node codebooks comprise respective entries relating to at least one of relative amplitude between channels corresponding to the respective associated network nodes or relative phase between channels corresponding to the respective associated network nodes.

50. The medium of claim 43, wherein at least one intra-node codebook or inter-node codebook comprises respective entries relating to a partial channel description, the partial channel description comprising at least one type of information selected from the group consisting of eigen-component information, recommended beam information, and recommended beam matrix information.

51. The medium of claim 43, wherein at least one intra-node codebook or inter-node codebook comprises respective entries relating to channel eigen-component information, the channel eigen-component information representing respective multi-in-multi-out (MIMO) channels between respective associated receive antennas and respective associated transmit antennas corresponding to the respective associated network nodes as equivalent multi-in-single-out (MISO) channels between the respective associated transmit antennas corresponding to the respective associated network nodes and a corresponding receive combiner output.

52. The medium of claim 51, wherein the channel eigen-component information comprises at least one of intra-node components that correspond to the respective associated transmit antennas at the respective associated network nodes or at least one of inter-node components that correspond to at least one of relative amplitude or relative phase between the respective associated network nodes.

53. The medium of claim 43, wherein respective intra-node codebooks and inter-node codebooks are constructed to match at least one of antenna configurations of the respective associated network nodes or standard observed propagation conditions.

54. The medium of claim 43, wherein:

the identifying comprises identifying respective resource units utilized by an associated communication system and identifying the one or more intra-node codebooks and the one or more inter-node codebooks that comprise respective entries constructed on a per-resource unit basis; and

the providing comprises providing the channel state feedback to the associated network node corresponding to one or more entries in the at least one selected codebook that correspond to the respective resource units to be utilized by the associated network node.

55. The medium of claim 54, wherein the respective resource units comprise at least one of resource blocks or frequency sub-bands.

56. The medium of claim 43, wherein the providing comprises providing the channel state feedback to the associated network node at least in part by transmitting one or more precoding indices to the associated network node that correspond to respective entries in the at least one selected codebook that substantially match measured channel conditions.

57. A method, comprising:

identifying, by a communication device, one or more per-node channel state information (CSI) codebooks and one or more inter-node CSI codebooks constructed via vector quantization;

selecting, by the communication device, a per-node CSI codebook, an inter-node CSI codebook, or both per-node and inter-node CSI codebooks from which channel state feedback is to be provided to one or more serving network nodes of a network including a plurality of network nodes; and

providing the channel state feedback to the one or more serving network nodes based on one or more selected CSI codebooks.

58. The method of claim 57, wherein said selecting comprises selecting the per-node CSI codebook, the inter-node CSI codebook, or both the per-node and inter-node CSI codebooks based at least in part on a downlink coordination strategy employed by the one or more serving network nodes.

59. The method of claim 57, wherein said selecting comprises selecting the per-node CSI codebook, the inter-node CSI codebook, or both the per-node and inter-node CSI codebooks based at least in part on information received from the one or more serving network nodes.

60. The method of claim 57, wherein the one or more inter-node CSI codebooks comprise respective entries relating to at least one of relative amplitude between channels corresponding to respective network nodes of the network or relative phase between channels corresponding to the respective network nodes of the network.

61. The method of claim 57, wherein:

said identifying comprises identifying respective resource units utilized by an associated communication system and identifying the one or more per-node CSI codebooks and the one or more inter-node CSI codebooks that comprise respective entries constructed on a per-resource unit basis; and

said providing comprises providing the channel state feedback to the one or more serving network nodes corresponding to one or more entries in the one or more respective selected CSI codebooks that correspond to the respective resource units to be utilized by the one or more serving network nodes.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein the respective resource units comprise at least one of resource blocks or frequency sub-bands.