Downlink coverage enhancements

• US 9,894,647 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2017
• Issued: 02/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Wanshi, Xu, Hao, Gaal, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Roberts, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAQUE, ABUSAYEED M
• Application Number:
  US15/494,457
• Publication Number:
  US 20170230948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 297 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0044 allocation of payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/14 WLL [Wireless Local Loop]; RLL [Radio Local Loop]

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques and apparatus for enhancing downlink coverage for certain user equipments (UEs) (e.g., low cost, low data rate UEs). Certain types of UEs may have limited coverage or should receive enhanced coverage relative to other types of UEs. For example, some types of low cost UEs may have only a single receive chain, thereby limiting DL coverage, while other types of UEs benefit from multiple receive chains. One example method generally includes identifying a first type of one or more UEs that is to receive enhanced downlink (DL) coverage relative to a second type of UEs and utilizing one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques when communicating with the first type of UEs, the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques designed to adjust at least for reduced DL processing gain of the first type of UEs relative to the second type of UEs.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE) of a first type of UEs, comprising:

receiving information regarding one or more downlink (DL) coverage enhancement techniques utilized by a base station when communicating with the UE to adjust at least for reduced DL processing gain of the first type of UEs relative to a second type of UEs;

receiving one or more DL transmissions from the base station transmitted using the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques; and

processing the one or more received DL transmissions based on the received information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reduced DL processing gain is due to at least one of:

a reduced number of receive chains relative to the second type of UEs;

reduced downlink transmission power;

or

narrower bandwidth operation relative to the second type of UEs.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving a reduced payload size of one or more control channels at the first type of UEs relative to a payload size of the same control channels received at the second type of UEs.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

a first payload size is used for a unicast message of a first type of control channel; and

a second payload size is used for a non-unicast message of the first type of control channel.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise an increased amount of resource availability for one or more control channels to support a reduced coding rate.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the increased amount of resource availability is relative to a number of resources available for receiving the same control channels at the second type of UEs.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the same information is repeated in different sets of resource elements (REs) in the increased amount of resource availability.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising transmitting, to the base station, signaling indicating one or more subframes in which a control channel is to be transmitted using the increased amount of resources.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise transmission time interval (TTI) bundling wherein redundant versions of a downlink channel are received in a bundle of multiple DL subframes.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the bundle comprises N consecutive DL subframes.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the bundle comprises N consecutive non-Multimedia Broadcast Single Frequency Network (non-MBSFN) DL subframes.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein DL subframes in the bundle with and without a downlink pilot time slot (DwPTS) are received on different numbers of resource blocks (RBs).

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the downlink channel comprises a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the TTI bundling comprises receiving a single transport block (TB) over multiple subframes.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the TB is received in each subframe of the bundle using a same modulation and coding scheme (MCS).

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the TB is received in each subframe of the bundle using a same number of resource blocks (RBs).

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more downlink coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving versions of the downlink channel in different subframes using different sets of control channel elements (CCEs), and wherein the locations of the different sets of CCEs in the different subframes are linked.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the TB is received in each subframe of the bundle using different locations of resource blocks (RBs).

19. The method of claim 9, wherein a scheduling timing between a control channel and a corresponding physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmitted via the TTI bundling is determined based on a first subframe in the bundle.

20. The method of claim 9, wherein a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) timing between a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmitted via the TTI bundling and a corresponding HARQ response is determined based on a last subframe in the bundle.

21. The method of claim 9, wherein a number of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes supported is dependent on a TTI bundling size.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in each subframe in a bundle of subframes using a same aggregation level.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in different subframes in a bundle of subframes using a different aggregation level.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein an aggregation level used in a subframe is dependent on available resources in that subframe.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein a version of the downlink channel in each subframe in the bundle is individually coded, modulated, and mapped to resources.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more downlink coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving versions of the downlink channel in different subframes using different sets of control channel elements (CCEs), and wherein the locations of the different sets of CCEs in the different subframes are linked.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the same decoding candidate for the downlink channel in each subframe in a bundle of subframes.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the DL channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein a subframe offset for a starting subframe in the bundle is determined at least one of semi-statically or dynamically.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the subframe offset for the starting subframe in the bundle is cell-dependent.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more coverage enhancement techniques comprises receiving the DL channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein a size of the bundle is at least one of fixed or semi-statically configured.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein one or more physical layer (PHY) operations for receiving a version of the downlink channel vary in different subframes in the bundle.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein a size of the bundle is dynamically configured.

33. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein one or more physical layer (PHY) operations for receiving a version of the downlink channel are the same in different subframes in the bundle.

34. The method of claim 1, wherein a control channel is received using a first technique and a data channel is received using a second technique for the first type of UEs.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein cross-subframe scheduling is utilized, such that a control channel received in a first subframe schedules a data transmission by the UE in a subsequent subframe.

36. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise utilizing additional beamforming gain.

37. The method of claim 1, wherein different DL coverage enhancement techniques are used for DL channels received in different decoding candidates.

38. An apparatus for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE) of a first type of UEs, comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive information regarding one or more downlink (DL) coverage enhancement techniques utilized by a base station when communicating with the UE to adjust at least for reduced DL processing gain of the first type of UEs relative to a second type of UEs;

receive one or more DL transmissions from the base station transmitted using the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques; and

process the one or more received DL transmissions based on the received information; and

a memory coupled to the processor.

39. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving a reduced payload size of one or more control channels at the first type of UEs relative to a payload size of the same control channels received at the second type of UEs.

40. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise an increased amount of resource availability for one or more control channels to support a reduced coding rate.

41. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise transmission time interval (TTI) bundling wherein redundant versions of a downlink channel are received in a bundle of multiple DL subframes.

42. The apparatus or claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in each subframe in a bundle of subframes using a same aggregation level.

43. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in different subframes in a bundle of subframes using a different aggregation level.

44. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein a version of the downlink channel in each subframe in the bundle is individually coded, modulated, and mapped to resources.

45. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the one or more downlink coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving versions of the downlink channel in different subframes using different sets of control channel elements (CCEs), and wherein the locations of the different sets of CCEs in the different subframes are linked.

46. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the same decoding candidate for the downlink channel in each subframe in a bundle of subframes.

47. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the DL channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein a subframe offset for a starting subframe in the bundle is determined at least one of semi-statically or dynamically.

48. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the one or more coverage enhancement techniques comprises receiving the DL channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein a size of the bundle is at least one of fixed or semi-statically configured.

49. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein one or more physical layer (PHY) operations for receiving a version of the downlink channel vary in different subframes in the bundle.

50. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein a size of the bundle is dynamically configured.

51. The apparatus or claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving the downlink channel in a bundle of subframes, and wherein one or more physical layer (PHY) operations for receiving a version of the downlink channel are the same in different subframes in the bundle.

52. The apparatus or claim 38, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise utilizing additional beamforming gain.

53. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein different DL coverage enhancement techniques are used for DL channels received in different decoding candidates.

54. An apparatus for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE) of a first type of UEs comprising:

a processor,

wherein the processor configured to;

receive information regarding one or more downlink (DL) coverage enhancement techniques utilized by a base station when communicating with the UE to adjust at least for reduced DL processing gain of the first type of UEs relative to a second type of UEs;

receive one or more DL transmissions from the base station transmitted using the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques; and

process the one or more received DL transmissions based on the received information.

56. The apparatus of claim 54, wherein the reduced DL processing gain is due to at least one of:

a reduced number of receive chains relative to the second type of UEs;

reduced downlink transmission power;

or

narrower bandwidth operation relative to the second type of UEs.

57. The apparatus of claim 54, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving a reduced payload size of one or more control channels at the first type of UEs relative to a payload size of the same control channels received at the second type of UEs.

55. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium for wireless communications having instructions stored thereon for:

receiving information regarding one or more downlink (DL) coverage enhancement techniques utilized by a base station when communicating with the UE to adjust at least for reduced DL processing gain of the first type of UEs relative to a second type of UEs;

receiving one or more DL transmissions from the base station transmitted using the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques; and

processing the one or more received DL transmissions based on the received information.

58. The computer-readable medium of claim 55, wherein the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques comprise receiving a reduced payload size of one or more control channels at the first type of UEs relative to a payload size of the same control channels received at the second type of UEs.

59. The computer-readable medium of claim 58, wherein the reduced DL processing gain is due to at least one of:

a reduced number of receive chains relative to the second type of UEs;

reduced downlink transmission power;

or

narrower bandwidth operation relative to the second type of UEs.