U.S. patent application number 16/936504 was filed with the patent office on 2021-01-14 for aperiodic channel quality indicator report in carrier aggregation.
The applicant listed for this patent is QUALCOMM Incorporated. Invention is credited to Wanshi CHEN, Jelena DAMNJANOVIC, Peter GAAL, Juan MONTOJO.
Application Number | 20210013996 16/936504 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 1000005120538 |
Filed Date | 2021-01-14 |
United States Patent
Application |
20210013996 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
CHEN; Wanshi ; et
al. |
January 14, 2021 |
APERIODIC CHANNEL QUALITY INDICATOR REPORT IN CARRIER
AGGREGATION
Abstract
Techniques for reporting channel quality information (CQI) in a
multi-carrier wireless communication system are disclosed. In one
aspect, a user equipment determines one or more reporting groups,
each comprising a plurality of component carriers which are
configured for the user equipment. The user equipment may detect a
trigger from a base station that selects a reporting group and may
respond to the trigger by sending CQI for at least the activated
component carriers in the selected reporting group.
Inventors: |
CHEN; Wanshi; (San Diego,
CA) ; DAMNJANOVIC; Jelena; (Del Mar, CA) ;
MONTOJO; Juan; (San Diego, CA) ; GAAL; Peter;
(San Diego, CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
QUALCOMM Incorporated |
San Diego |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
1000005120538 |
Appl. No.: |
16/936504 |
Filed: |
July 23, 2020 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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16448795 |
Jun 21, 2019 |
10727974 |
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16936504 |
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13208080 |
Aug 11, 2011 |
10333650 |
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16448795 |
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61374069 |
Aug 16, 2010 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04W 24/10 20130101;
H04L 1/0027 20130101; H04L 5/0057 20130101; H04L 5/0053 20130101;
H04L 5/001 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04L 1/00 20060101
H04L001/00; H04L 5/00 20060101 H04L005/00 |
Claims
1. (canceled)
2. A method in a base station, comprising: signaling to a user
equipment, UE, one or more reporting sets associated with a
plurality of component carriers, wherein the one or more reporting
sets are configured for the UE; transmitting, on a downlink control
channel, a trigger for the transmission of aperiodic channel
quality information (CQI) by the UE, wherein the trigger for the
transmission of aperiodic CQI comprises two or more triggering bits
of a downlink control channel message that form a code
corresponding to a reporting set in the one or more reporting sets;
and receiving, on an uplink data channel corresponding to the
downlink control channel, an aperiodic CQI report for component
carriers in the reporting set corresponding to the trigger.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more reporting sets
are signaled to the UE in one or more radio resource control (RRC)
messages.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein a number of the two or more
triggering bits is smaller than a number of component carriers in
the plurality of component carriers.
5. The method of claim 2, wherein the downlink control channel
schedules transmissions on the uplink data channel.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein the aperiodic CQI report received
on the uplink data channel comprises CQI multiplexed with data
transmissions.
7. The method of claim 2, wherein the aperiodic CQI for the
component carriers in the reporting set corresponding to the
trigger is jointly coded.
8. The method of claim 2, wherein the aperiodic CQI for the
component carriers in the reporting set corresponding to the
trigger is separately coded.
9. The method of claim 2, wherein the aperiodic CQI comprises
wideband CQI feedback for at least one of the component carriers in
the reporting set corresponding to the trigger.
10. The method of claim 2, wherein the aperiodic CQI comprises
sub-band CQI feedback for at least one of the component carriers in
the reporting set corresponding to the trigger.
11. The method of claim 2, wherein the trigger for the transmission
of aperiodic CQI comprises an uplink grant for the UE.
12. An apparatus configured for wireless communication, the
apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and a memory coupled
to the at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor
is configured to: signal to a user equipment, UE, one or more
reporting sets associated with a plurality of component carriers,
wherein the one or more reporting sets are configured for the UE,
transmit, on a downlink control channel, a trigger for the
transmission of aperiodic channel quality information (CQI) by the
UE, wherein the trigger for the transmission of aperiodic CQI
comprises two or more triggering bits of a downlink control channel
message that form a code corresponding to a reporting set in the
one or more reporting sets, and receive, on an uplink data channel
corresponding to the downlink control channel, an aperiodic CQI
report for component carriers in the reporting set corresponding to
the trigger.
13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more reporting
sets are signaled to the UE in one or more radio resource control
(RRC) messages.
14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a number of the two or more
triggering bits is smaller than a number of component carriers in
the plurality of component carriers.
15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the downlink control channel
schedules transmissions on the uplink data channel.
16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the aperiodic CQI report
received on the uplink data channel comprises CQI multiplexed with
data transmissions.
17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the aperiodic CQI for the
component carriers in the reporting set corresponding to the
trigger is jointly coded.
18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the aperiodic CQI for the
component carriers in the reporting set corresponding to the
trigger is separately coded.
19. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the aperiodic CQI comprises
wideband CQI feedback for at least one of the component carriers in
the reporting set corresponding to the trigger.
20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the aperiodic CQI comprises
sub-band CQI feedback for at least one of the component carriers in
the reporting set corresponding to the trigger.
21. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the trigger for the
transmission of aperiodic CQI comprises an uplink grant for the
UE.
22. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions
that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform
operations comprising: signaling to a user equipment, UE, one or
more reporting sets associated with a plurality of component
carriers, wherein the one or more reporting sets are configured for
the UE; transmitting, on a downlink control channel, a trigger for
the transmission of aperiodic channel quality information (CQI) by
the UE, wherein the trigger for the transmission of aperiodic CQI
comprises two or more triggering bits of a downlink control channel
message that form a code corresponding to a reporting set in the
one or more reporting sets; and receiving, on an uplink data
channel corresponding to the downlink control channel, an aperiodic
CQI report for component carriers in the reporting set
corresponding to the trigger.
Description
CLAIM OF PRIORITY
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 16/448,795 entitled "Aperiodic Channel Quality
Indicator Report in Carrier Aggregation" filed Jun. 21, 2019, which
is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/208,080
entitled "Aperiodic Channel Quality Indicator Report in Carrier
Aggregation" filed Aug. 11, 2011, which claims the benefit of U.S.
Provisional Patent Application No. 61/374,069 entitled "Aperiodic
Channel Quality Indicator Report in Carrier Aggregation" filed Aug.
16, 2010, which are expressly incorporated by reference herein in
their entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The present disclosure relates generally to the field of
wireless communications and, more particularly, to methods,
apparatus and articles of manufacture for reporting channel quality
in wireless communication systems with aggregated carriers.
BACKGROUND
[0003] This section is intended to provide a background or context
to the disclosed embodiments. The description herein may include
concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that
have been previously conceived of or pursued. Therefore, unless
otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is
not prior art to the description and claims in this application and
is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
[0004] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to
provide various types of communication content such as voice, data,
and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of
supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the
available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power).
Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division
multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access
(TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems,
3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, and orthogonal frequency
division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
[0005] In some wireless communication systems, a mobile device may
report information about channel conditions to a base station. This
information may include, for example, an operating signal-to-noise
ratio. The base station may use the information about channel
conditions to make proper decisions regarding scheduling, MIMO
settings, modulation and coding choices, etc.
SUMMARY
[0006] Techniques for reporting channel quality indicators (CQIs)
in a multi-carrier wireless communication system are disclosed. In
one aspect, a user equipment (UE) determines one or more reporting
sets, where each reporting set includes a plurality of component
carriers. On a downlink control channel, the UE receives a trigger
for transmission of an aperiodic CQI report. On an uplink data
channel corresponding to the downlink control channel, the UE
transmits the aperiodic CQI report for component carriers in a
reporting set selected by the trigger.
[0007] In one aspect, the UE determines which component carriers in
the selected reporting set are activated component carriers, and
generates the aperiodic CQI report for the activated component
carriers. In another aspect, the UE determines which component
carriers in the selected reporting set are deactivated component
carriers, and generates dummy CQI feedback for each of the
deactivated component carriers in the form of a predetermined
pattern. In other aspects, the UE determines the reporting sets by
receiving radio resource control (RRC) configuration messages
and/or each of the one or more reporting sets includes a primary
component carrier (PCC), where the PCC includes the downlink
control channel.
[0008] In one aspect, a base station signals one or more reporting
sets to a user equipment (UE), where each reporting set includes a
plurality of component carriers. The base station transmits, on a
downlink control channel, a trigger for the transmission of
aperiodic channel quality information (CQI) by the UE, wherein the
base station receives, on an uplink data channel corresponding to
the downlink control channel, an aperiodic CQI report for component
carriers in a reporting set selected by the trigger. In one aspect,
the base station also transmits one or more different reporting
sets to a second UE in communication with the base station.
[0009] These and other features of various embodiments, together
with the organization and manner of operation thereof, will become
apparent from the following detailed description when taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference
numerals are used to refer to like parts throughout.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] Provided embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and
not of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in
which:
[0011] FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless communication system;
[0012] FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a communication
system;
[0013] FIG. 3 illustrates aspects of aperiodic CQI triggering and
reporting;
[0014] FIG. 4 illustrates further aspects of aperiodic CQI
triggering and reporting;
[0015] FIG. 5A is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process of
transmitting an aperiodic CQI report;
[0016] FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary apparatus which may perform
the process of FIG. 5A;
[0017] FIG. 6A is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process of
triggering an aperiodic CQI report;
[0018] FIG. 6B illustrates an exemplary apparatus which may perform
the process of FIG. 6A; and
[0019] FIG. 7 illustrates another apparatus in which aspects of the
present disclosure may be implemented.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0020] In the following description, for purposes of explanation
and not limitation, details and descriptions are set forth in order
to provide a thorough understanding of the various disclosed
embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the
art that the various embodiments may be practiced in other
embodiments that depart from these details and descriptions.
[0021] As used herein, the terms "component," "module," "system"
and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity,
either hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software,
software, or software in execution. For example, a component may
be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor,
a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a
program and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an
application running on a computing device and the computing device
can be a component. One or more components can reside within a
process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized
on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.
In addition, these components can execute from various computer
readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The
components may communicate by way of local and/or remote processes
such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets
(e.g., data from one component interacting with another component
in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such
as the Internet with other systems by way of the signal).
[0022] Furthermore, certain embodiments are described herein in
connection with a user equipment. A user equipment can also be
called a user terminal, and may contain some or all of the
functionality of a system, subscriber unit, subscriber station,
mobile station, mobile wireless terminal, mobile device, node,
device, remote station, remote terminal, terminal, wireless
communication device, wireless communication apparatus or user
agent. A user equipment can be a cellular telephone, a cordless
telephone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a smart
phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital
assistant (PDA), a laptop, a handheld communication device, a
handheld computing device, a satellite radio, a wireless modem card
and/or another processing device for communicating over a wireless
system. Moreover, various aspects are described herein in
connection with a base station. A base station may be utilized for
communicating with one or more wireless terminals and can also be
called, and may contain some or all of the functionality of, an
access point, node, Node B, evolved NodeB (eNodeB) or some other
network entity. A base station communicates over the air-interface
with wireless terminals. The communication may take place through
one or more sectors. The base station can act as a router between
the wireless terminal and the rest of the access network, which can
include an Internet Protocol (IP) network, by converting received
air-interface frames to IP packets. The base station can also
coordinate management of attributes for the air interface, and may
also be the gateway between a wired network and the wireless
network.
[0023] Various aspects, embodiments or features will be presented
in terms of systems that may include a number of devices,
components, modules, and the like. It is to be understood and
appreciated that the various systems may include additional
devices, components, modules, and so on, and/or may not include all
of the devices, components, modules and so on, discussed in
connection with the figures. A combination of these approaches may
also be used.
[0024] Additionally, in the subject description, the word
"exemplary" is used to mean serving as an example, instance or
illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as
"exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or
advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, use of the
word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete
manner.
[0025] The present disclosure may be incorporated into a
communication system. In one example, such communication system
utilizes an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) that
effectively partitions the overall system bandwidth into multiple
(N.sub.F) subcarriers, which may also be referred to as frequency
sub-channels, tones or frequency bins. For an OFDM system, the data
to be transmitted (i.e., the information bits) is first encoded
with a particular coding scheme to generate coded bits, and the
coded bits are further grouped into multi-bit symbols that are then
mapped to modulation symbols. Each modulation symbol corresponds to
a point in a signal constellation defined by a particular
modulation scheme (e.g., M-PSK or M-QAM) used for data
transmission. At each time interval, which may be dependent on the
bandwidth of each frequency subcarrier, a modulation symbol may be
transmitted on each of the N.sub.F frequency subcarriers. Thus,
OFDM may be used to combat inter-symbol interference (ISI) caused
by frequency selective fading, which is characterized by different
amounts of attenuation across the system bandwidth.
[0026] Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system
can simultaneously support communication for multiple wireless
terminals. Each terminal communicates with one or more base
stations through transmissions on the forward and reverse links.
The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link
from the base stations to the terminals, and the reverse link (or
uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the
base stations. This communication link can be established through a
single-in-single-out, multiple-in-single-out or a
multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) system.
[0027] A MIMO system employs multiple (N.sub.T) transmit antennas
and multiple (N.sub.R) receive antennas for data transmission. A
MIMO channel formed by the N.sub.T transmit and N.sub.R receive
antennas may be decomposed into N.sub.S independent channels, which
are also referred to as spatial channels, where N.sub.Smin{N.sub.T,
N.sub.R}. Each of the N.sub.S independent channels corresponds to a
dimension. The MIMO system can provide improved performance (e.g.,
higher throughput and/or greater reliability) if the additional
dimensionalities created by the multiple transmit and receive
antennas are utilized. A MIMO system also supports time division
duplex (TDD) and frequency division duplex (FDD) systems. In a TDD
system, the forward and reverse link transmissions are on the same
frequency region so that the reciprocity principle allows the
estimation of the forward link channel from the reverse link
channel. This enables the base station to extract transmit
beamforming gain on the forward link when multiple antennas are
available at the base station.
[0028] FIG. 1 shows a multi-carrier wireless communication system
100. A base station 102 may include multiple antenna groups, and
each antenna group may comprise one or more antennas. For example,
if the base station 102 comprises six antennas, one antenna group
may comprise a first antenna 104 and a second antenna 106, another
antenna group may comprise a third antenna 108 and a fourth antenna
110, while a third group may comprise a fifth antenna 112 and a
sixth antenna 114. It should be noted that while each of the
above-noted antenna groups were identified as having two antennas,
more or fewer antennas may be utilized in each antenna group.
[0029] A first user equipment 116 communicates with, for example,
the fifth antenna 112 and the sixth antenna 114 to enable the
transmission of information to the first user equipment 116 over a
first forward link 120. As shown, the exemplary first forward link
120 comprises three component carriers (CCs) while the exemplary
first reverse link 118 includes one component carrier. The number
of component carriers in both the forward link 120 and the reverse
link 118 may vary over time and is not limited by the present
example. For instance, from time to time, base station 102 may
configure and reconfigure a plurality of uplink and downlink CCs
for the multi-carrier user equipment 116, 122 it serves.
[0030] FIG. 1 also illustrates a second user equipment 122 in
communication with, for example, the third antenna 108 and the
fourth antenna 110 of base station 102 to enable the transmission
of information to the second user equipment 122 over a second
forward link 126, and the reception of information from the second
user equipment 122 over a second reverse link 124. In a Frequency
Division Duplex (FDD) system, the component carriers 118, 120, 124
126 shown in FIG. 1 may use different frequencies for
communication. For example, the first forward link 120 may use a
different frequency than that used by the first reverse link
118.
[0031] Each group of antennas and/or the area in which they are
designed to communicate may be referred to as a sector of base
station 102. For example, the antenna groups depicted in FIG. 1 may
be designed to communicate with the user equipment 116, 122 in a
different sectors of the base station 102. On the forward links 120
and 126, the transmitting antennas of the base station 102 may
utilize beamforming in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio
of the forward links for the different user equipment 116 and 122.
Use of beamforming to transmit to user equipment scattered
throughout a coverage area may reduce the amount of interference to
user equipment in the neighboring cells.
[0032] Each group of antennas and/or the area in which they are
designed to communicate is often referred to as a sector of the
base station. For example, the different antenna groups that are
depicted in FIG. 1 may be designed to communicate to the user
equipment in a sector of the base station 100. In communication
over the forward links 120 and 126, the transmitting antennas of
the base station 100 utilize beamforming in order to improve the
signal-to-noise ratio of the forward links for the different user
equipment 116 and 122. Also, a base station that uses beamforming
to transmit to user equipment scattered randomly throughout its
coverage area causes less interference to user equipment in the
neighboring cells than a base station that transmits
omni-directionally through a single antenna to all its user
equipment.
[0033] The exemplary multi-carrier communication system 100 may
include physical uplink (UL) channels and physical downlink (DL)
channels. The downlink physical channels may include at least one
of a physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), a physical
downlink control channel (PDCCH), a physical hybrid ARQ indicator
channel (PHICH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). The
uplink physical channels may include at least one of a physical
random access channel (PRACH), a channel quality indicator channel
(CQICH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and a physical
uplink shared channel (PUSCH).
[0034] Further, the following terminology and features may be used
in describing the various disclosed embodiments:
TABLE-US-00001 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project AMC Adaptive
modulation and coding ARQ Automatic repeat request BTS Base
transceiver station CC Component carrrier Co-MIMO Cooperative MIMO
CP Cyclic prefix CQI Channel quality indicator CRC Cyclic
redundancy check DCI Downlink control indicator DFT-SOFDM Discrete
Fourier transform spread OFDM DL Downlink (base station to
subscriber transmission) E-UTRAN Evolved UMTS terrestrial radio
access network eNodeB Evolved Node B E-UTRA Evolved UTRA E-UTRAN
Evolved UTRAN FDD Frequency division duplex HARQ Hybrid automatic
repeat request HSDPA High speed downlink packet access HSPA High
speed packet access HSUPA High speed uplink packet access LTE Long
term evolution MAC Medium access control MIMO Multiple input
multiple output MISO Multiple input single output MU-MIMO Multiple
user MIMO OFDM Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDMA
Orthogonal frequency division multiple access PBCH Physical
broadcast channel PCC Primary component carrier PCFICH Physical
control format indicator channel PDCCH Physical downlink control
channel PDSCH Physical downlink shared channel PHICH Physical
hybrid ARQ indicator channel PHY Physical layer PRACH Physical
random access channel PMI Pre-coding matrix indicator PUCCH
Physical uplink control channel PUSCH Physical uplink shared
channel.
[0035] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating additional aspects of
an exemplary multi-carrier wireless communication system 200 which
can be as described in connection with FIG. 1. As shown, system 200
comprises a base station 210 (also referred to as a "transmitter
system," "access point," or "eNodeB") and a user equipment 250
(also referred to as a "UE," "receiver system," or "access
terminal"). It will be appreciated that even though the base
station 210 is referred to as a transmitter system and the user
equipment 250 is referred to as a receiver system, as illustrated,
these systems communicate bi-directionally. As such, the terms
"transmitter system" and "receiver system" are not limited to
single direction communications from either system. Further, it
should also be noted the base station 210 and the user equipment
250 of FIG. 2 may each communicate with a plurality of other
receiver and transmitter systems.
[0036] At the base station 210, traffic data for a number of data
streams is provided from a data source 212 to a transmit (TX) data
processor 214. Each data stream may be transmitted over a
respective transmitter system. The TX data processor 214 formats,
codes and interleaves the traffic data for each data stream, based
on a particular coding scheme selected for that data stream, to
provide the coded data. The coded data for each data stream may be
multiplexed with pilot data using, for example, OFDM techniques.
The pilot data is typically a known data pattern that is processed
in a known manner and may be used at the receiver system to
estimate the channel response. The multiplexed pilot and coded data
for each data stream is then modulated (symbol mapped) based on a
particular modulation scheme (e.g., BPSK, QSPK, M-PSK or M-QAM)
selected for that data stream to provide modulation symbols. The
data rate, coding and modulation for each data stream may be
determined by instructions performed by a processor 230 of the base
station 210.
[0037] In the present example, modulation symbols for all data
streams may be provided to a TX MIMO processor 220, which can
perform further processing (e.g., for OFDM). The TX MIMO processor
220 may then provide NT modulation symbol streams to NT transmitter
system transceivers (TMTR) 222a through 222t. The TX MIMO processor
220 may further apply beamforming weights to the symbols of the
data streams and to the antenna 224 from which the symbol is
transmitted.
[0038] Transceiver 222a through 222t at base station 210 receive
and process a respective symbol stream to provide one or more
analog signals, and further condition the analog signals to provide
a modulated signal suitable for transmission. In some systems, the
conditioning may include, but is not limited to, operations such as
amplification, filtering, up-conversion and the like. The modulated
signals produced by the transceivers 222a through 222t are then
transmitted from the antennas 224a through 224t of base station 210
as shown in FIG. 2.
[0039] At the user equipment 250, the transmitted modulated signals
may be received by the antennas 252a through 252r, and the received
signal from each of the receiver system antennas 252a through 252r
is provided to a respective transceiver (RCVR) 254a through 254r.
Each transceiver 254a through 254r at the user equipment 250 may
condition a respective received signal, digitize the conditioned
signal to provide samples and further processes the samples to
provide a corresponding "received" symbol stream. Conditioning may
include, but is not limited to, operations such as amplification,
filtering, down-conversion and the like.
[0040] An RX data processor 260 receives and processes symbol
streams from transceivers 254a through 254r based on a particular
receiver processing technique to provide a plurality of "detected"
symbol streams. In one example, each detected symbol stream can
include symbols that are estimates of the symbols transmitted for
the corresponding data stream. The RX data processor 260 can
demodulate, de-interleave and decode each detected symbol stream to
recover the traffic data for the corresponding data stream. The
processing by the RX data processor 260 may be complementary to
that performed by the TX MIMO processor 220 and the TX data
processor 214 at the base station 210. The RX data processor 260
can additionally provide processed symbol streams to a data sink
264.
[0041] A channel response estimate may be generated by the RX data
processor 260 and used to perform space/time processing at the
receiver system, adjust power levels, change modulation rates or
schemes, and/or other appropriate actions. Additionally, the RX
data processor 260 can further estimate channel characteristics
such as signal-to-noise (SNR) and signal-to-interference ratio
(SIR) of the detected symbol streams. The RX data processor 260 can
then provide estimated channel characteristics to a processor 270.
In one example, the RX data processor 260 and/or the processor 270
of the user equipment can further derive channel state information
(CSI) which may include information regarding the communication
link and/or the received data stream.
[0042] The CSI may include, for example, different types of
information about channel conditions. For example, CSI can include
a rank indicator (RI) and/or a precoding matrix index (PMI) for
determining MIMO parameters, and/or wideband or sub-band channel
quality information (CQI) for each CC configured by base station
210 for determining data rates and modulation and coding schemes.
Processor 270 can generate CSI reports that include PMI, CQI and/or
RI for one or more of the carriers configured for use by user
equipment 250.
[0043] In particular, the CQI (also referred to as "channel quality
index," and "channel quality indicator") may be used by the base
station 210 to determine the data rate that can be supported by
each of the configured component carriers, taking into account the
signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) and the
characteristics of the UE's receiver. At the user equipment 250,
the CQI that is produced by the processor 270 is processed by a TX
data processor 238, modulated by a modulator 280, conditioned by
the receiver system transceivers 254a through 254r and transmitted
back to the base station 210. In addition, a data source 236 at the
user equipment 250 can provide additional data to be processed by
the TX data processor 238.
[0044] The user equipment 250 may be capable of receiving and
processing spatially multiplexed signals. Spatial multiplexing may
be performed at the base station 210 by multiplexing and
transmitting different data streams on the transmitter system
antennas 224a through 224t. This is in contrast to the use of
transmit diversity schemes, where the same data stream is sent from
multiple transmitter systems antennas 224a through 224t. In a MIMO
communication system that receives and processes spatially
multiplexed signals, a precode matrix is typically used at the base
station 210 to ensure the signals transmitted from each of the
transmitter system antennas 224a through 224t are sufficiently
decorrelated from each other. This decorrelation ensures that the
composite signal arriving at any particular receiver system antenna
252a through 252r can be received and the individual data streams
can be determined in the presence of signals carrying other data
streams from other transmitter system antennas 224a through
224t.
[0045] Since the amount of cross-correlation between streams can be
influenced by the environment, it is advantageous for the user
equipment 250 to feed back information to the base station 210
about the received signals. For example, both the base station 210
and the user equipment 250 may contain a codebook with a number of
precoding matrices. Each of these precoding matrices can, in some
instances, be related to an amount of cross-correlation experienced
in the received signal. Since it is advantageous to send the index
of a particular matrix rather than the values in the matrix, the
user equipment 250 may send a CSI report with PMI information to
the base station 210. A rank indicator (RI) which indicates to the
base station 210 how many independent data streams to use in
spatial multiplexing may also transmitted.
[0046] Communication system 200 can also utilize transmit diversity
schemes instead of the spatially multiplexed scheme described
above. In these examples, the same data stream is transmitted
across the transmitter system antennas 224a through 224t. The data
rate delivered to the user equipment 250 is typically lower than
spatially multiplexed MIMO communication systems 200. Transmit
diversity schemes can provide robustness and reliability of the
communication channel. Each of the signals transmitted from the
transmitter system antennas 224a through 224t will experience a
different interference environment (e.g., fading, reflection,
multi-path phase shifts). The different signal characteristics
received at the receiver system antennas 252a through 254r may be
useful in determining the appropriate data stream.
[0047] Other exemplary systems may utilize a combination of spatial
multiplexing and transmit diversity. For example, in a system with
four antennas 224, a first data stream may be transmitted on two of
the antennas, and a second data stream may be transmitted on the
remaining two antennas. In these examples, the rank indicator may
be set to an integer lower than the full rank of the precode
matrix, indicating to the base station 210 to employ a combination
of spatial multiplexing and transmit diversity.
[0048] At the base station 210, the modulated signals from the user
equipment 250 are received by the transmitter system antennas 224,
conditioned by the transceivers 222, demodulated by a demodulator
240, and processed by the RX data processor 242 to extract the
reserve link message transmitted by the user equipment 250.
Processor 230 at the base station 210 may then determine which
pre-coding matrix to use for future forward link transmissions.
Processor 230 can also use the received signal to adjust the
beamforming weights for future forward link transmissions.
[0049] Processor 230 at the base station 210 and the processor 270
at the user equipment 250 may direct operations at their respective
systems. Additionally, a memory 232 at the base station 210 and a
memory 272 at the user equipment 250 can provide storage for
program codes and data used by the transmitter system processor 230
and the receiver system processor 270, respectively. Further, at
the user equipment 250, various processing techniques can be used
to process the NR received signals to detect the NT transmitted
symbol streams. These receiver processing techniques can include
spatial and space-time receiver processing techniques, which can
include equalization techniques, "successive nulling/equalization
and interference cancellation" receiver processing techniques,
and/or "successive interference cancellation" or "successive
cancellation" receiver processing techniques.
[0050] As noted above, a CQI report can be provided to the
processor 230 of the base station 210 and used to determine, for
example, data rates as well as coding and modulation schemes to be
used for one or more data streams in one or more component
carriers. The determined coding and modulation schemes can then be
provided to one or more transceivers 222a through 222t at the base
station 210 for quantization and/or use in later transmissions to
the user equipment 250. Additionally and/or alternatively, the
reported CQI can be used by the processor 230 of the base station
210 to generate various controls for the TX data processor 214 and
the TX MIMO processor 220. In one example, the CQI and/or other
information processed by the RX data processor 242 of the base
station 210 can be provided to a data sink 244.
[0051] As discussed herein, CQI reports for selected carriers or
different groups of component carries may be triggered
aperiodically by the base station 210 and reported by the user
equipment 250 on a physical uplink shared data channel (PUSCH). The
groups may be configured semi-statically by, for example, radio
resource control (RRC) signaling from the base station 210 to the
user equipment 250, and the trigger may be coded to select one of
the configured groups in response to changing channel conditions
and traffic levels. The type of CQI (e.g., wideband or sub-band)
may also be configured by RRC signaling. Additionally, selected
component carriers may activated or deactivated by the base station
210, either dynamically or semi-statically, which may suspend or
change CQI reporting for the deactivated component carriers.
[0052] In the multi-carrier wireless communication system of the
present disclosure, user equipment (UE) 250 may be configured with
two or more component carriers (CCs) in a carrier aggregation (CA)
scheme to provide expanded bandwidth resources on the forward
channel (downlink) from the base station (eNodeB) 210 to the UE 250
and/or on the reverse channel (uplink) from the UE 250 to the
eNodeB 210. In both the downlink and the uplink, one of the
component carriers may be designated as the primary component
carrier (PCC), while the other carriers may be designated as
secondary component carriers (SCCs).
[0053] According to the present disclosure, aperiodic CQI report
triggering in a multicarrier system may take different forms. One
possible triggering format is a one-to-one mapping where a PDCCH in
each downlink component carrier (DL CC) may trigger an aperiodic
CQI report in a PUSCH on a corresponding uplink component carrier
(UL CC). That is, in any given subframe, user equipment 250 may
receive multiple PDCCHs with the triggering bit set, and may
therefore transmit multiple PUSCHs with CQI reports. In LTE Rel-10
and beyond, on a per UE basis, both symmetric and DL-heavy
asymmetric CC configurations are supported. In the case of a
DL-heavy asymmetric CC configuration (i.e., more DL CCs than UL
CCs), at least one PDCCH may need to trigger CQI feedback for two
or more DL CCs. That is, a one-to-one mapping is not sufficient. In
fact, since each PDCCH requires at least one OFDM symbol
reservation across the full bandwidth of the component carrier, a
one-to-one mapping can result in an inefficient use of resources in
a multi-carrier system.
[0054] In a one-to-all mapping, one bit in a PDCCH (e.g., the DL
PCC) would be used to trigger CQI feedback for all the configured
DL CCs on one UL component carrier (e.g., the UL PCC). However,
depending on deployment scenarios and traffic/channel conditions,
it may not be necessary to report on all configured DL component
carriers at once (e.g., where one or more DL component carriers are
deactivated as discussed below) and, in addition, one-to-all
mapping may cause excessive control overhead in the shared uplink
data channel when the CQI reports for all CCs are transmitted on
the PUSCH.
[0055] Therefore, the techniques described herein provide
additional flexibility and increased efficiency for aperiodic CQI
reporting in a multi-carrier environment. In one aspect, in a
few-to-many mapping, where user equipment 250 is configured with M
downlink component carriers as described above, the user equipment
250 may receive additional configuration information via upper
layer signaling (e.g., via RRC signaling), defining reporting sets
of the configured component carriers.
[0056] For example, M configured DL component carriers may comprise
a set S (of dimension M) and the upper layer signaling may define
one or more reporting sets of the set S (e.g., denoted by S.sub.1,
. . . , S.sub.N) for aperiodic CQI triggering such that S.sub.1
.orgate.S.sub.2 .orgate. . . . .orgate.S.sub.N=S (where v is the
union operator). The reporting sets S.sub.n, n=1, . . . , N, may be
disjoint sets (i.e., no common members) or overlapping sets. For
example, it may be desirable to include the downlink PCC in every
set to insure that a CQI report for the downlink PCC is always
triggered, regardless of which reporting set is selected.
[0057] The CQI reporting trigger in a PDCCH in a given DL component
carrier may be associated with a particular reporting set S.sub.n.
Downlink control information (DCI) in the PDCCH may be formatted in
such a manner (e.g., DCI format 0 or DCI format 4 as defined in LTE
Rel-8 and above) that the UE interprets the DCI as an uplink (e.g.,
PUSCH) transmission grant containing an aperiodic CQI report
trigger.
[0058] The reporting set of DL component carriers associated with a
particular triggering PDCCH may be configured to include the uplink
component carrier corresponding to the downlink component carrier
that carries the triggering PDCCH. For example, if the triggering
PDCCH resides on DL component carrier CC1, for example, then the
reporting set of component carriers associated with the CQI
reporting trigger in that PDCCH will include CC1 (and possibly
other UL component carriers).
[0059] As noted above, an RRC configured reporting set Sn may
contain one or more deactivated DL CCs, for which the user
equipment 250 is not required to report channel feedback (but the
CC may still be operational). As a result, when a PDCCH triggers
channel feedback for a deactivated DL CC, the UE 250 may either not
report channel feedback for the deactivated CC or report dummy
channel feedback (e.g., a predetermined data pattern).
[0060] There is a potential for ambiguity between the eNodeB 210
and the UE 250 regarding the status of the CC (activated or
deactivated), due to the relatively high latency of RRC signaling,
so that the eNodeB 210 may need to perform blind detection of
uplink control information. In addition, if the CQI feedback for
multiple DL CCs is jointly coded in one PUSCH, a misalignment
between the eNodeB 210 and the UE 250 with respect to
activated/deactivated carriers may cause incorrect reception of
channel feedback for all of the involved DL CCs. On the other hand,
if the CQI feedback for multiple DL CCs are individually coded and
mapped to individual PUSCH resources, reception of channel feedback
at the eNodeB can be reduced on a per DL CC basis. Reporting dummy
channel feedback using the same layer 3 configured CQI report mode
for the corresponding DL CC is more robust, but may unnecessarily
waste PUSCH resources.
[0061] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a few-to-many set-based
aperiodic CQI report triggering such as may be used with the
multi-carrier communication systems shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In FIG.
3, the UE 250 of FIG. 2 is configured with 4 DL CCs and 3 UL CCs,
where UL-CC2 is deactivated. Two DL CC reporting sets are
configured, S.sub.1 and S.sub.2, where the DL PCC (DL-CC.sub.1) is
present in both sets. The UE 250 can respond to triggering by the
eNodeB 210 such that when PDCCH scheduling of PUSCH on CC.sub.1 is
detected, it triggers aperiodic CQI feedback for set S.sub.1
(DL-CC.sub.1 and DL-CC.sub.2), and when PDCCH scheduling of PUSCH
on CC.sub.3 or CC.sub.4 is detected, it triggers the UE 250 to
report CQI for set S.sub.2 (DL-CC1, DL-CC3 and DL-CC4).
[0062] DL CC set-based aperiodic CQI report triggering can provide
the eNodeB 210 with the flexibility to efficiently operate DL
scheduling depending on the deployment scenario and the
traffic/channel conditions at the UE 250. Layer 3 (e.g., RRC) based
configuration helps the eNodeB 210 balance the tradeoff between
efficiency, flexibility and complexity. In the limit, the eNodeB
210 can configure one set, including all DL-CCs, which reduces to
one-to-all mapping. The eNodeB 210 can also configure M mutually
orthogonal sets, which reduces to one-to-one mapping as described
above.
[0063] In one aspect, a one-to-many CQI report triggering scheme
may be implemented in the communication system where each PDCCH
generated by the eNodeB 210 (and associated with a corresponding DL
component carrier) may include one or more triggering bits
configured to trigger CQI reporting by UE 250 for one of a
plurality of DL component carrier reporting sets (e.g., defined by
RRC signaling). In this example, the eNodeB 210 may send only one
PDCCH with a CQI trigger in a given subframe.
[0064] The triggering bits may be mapped or coded to correspond to
different reporting requirements which may be interpreted by UE 250
as no reporting (e.g., a different PDCCH is being used for
triggering), reporting only on the DL component carrier on which
the triggering PDCCH resides, or selecting one of a plurality of
RRC predefined reporting sets, for example. In one aspect, the
triggered CQI report may be transmitted on the PUSCH scheduled by
the triggering PDCCH irrespective of whether the UL PCC has a PUSCH
transmission or not. In another aspect, the triggered CQI report
may be transmitted on the uplink PCC regardless of the triggering
PDCCH.
[0065] As one example, a triggering code sent from the eNodeB 210
might include 3 DCI bits allocated to CQI report trigging in a
given PDCCH. It will be appreciated that the general principles
involved may be applied using more than three bits or fewer than
three bits. The three coded bits might be interpreted by the UE 250
in the following manner. Code `000` may correspond to no CQI
reporting, code `001` may trigger CQI reporting only for the DL
component carrier which carries the triggering PDCCH, code `010`
may trigger CQI reporting for a first set of DL component carriers
preconfigured by higher layer signaling, and code `100` may trigger
CQI reporting for a second set of DL component carriers
preconfigured by higher layer signaling. It will be appreciated
that the same result could be achieved using 2-bit binary signaling
where, for example, binary code 00 corresponds to 3-bit code 000,
binary code 01 corresponds to 3-bit code 001, binary code 10
corresponds to 3-bit code 010 and binary code 11 corresponds to
3-bit code 100.
[0066] In the example described above, it is the responsibility of
the eNodeB 210 to pick a unique component carrier PUSCH in each
subframe on which to transmit the CQI feedback for each reporting
set. It will be appreciated that when such a PUSCH is dynamically
scheduled via the triggering PDCCH, the eNodeB can control the MCS
properly to ensure the quality of the channel feedback.
[0067] Transmitting the CQI report on the PUSCH corresponding to
the triggering PDCCH can avoid potential confusion between the
eNodeB 210 and the UE 250 in a situation where the PDCCH for the UL
PCC may be missed (e.g., if the PUSCH on the UL PCC is dynamically
scheduled) and the corresponding DL PCC may not be part of the DL
CC reporting set in question. In addition, if the PUSCH on the UL
PCC undergoes non-adaptive re-transmission, its MCS, transmit
power, available resource elements, etc. may not be in the
appropriate combination to carry CQI feedback with the desired
quality. It will be appreciated that, typically, each PDCCH is
targeted with a 1% miss-detection probability. Therefore, enabling
triggering over two or more PDCCHs for the same DL CC triggering
set may not be necessary from a performance perspective.
[0068] Accordingly, the triggering of two or more DL CC reporting
sets at the same time may be treated by the UE 250 as an error
event (e.g., an eNodeB coding error or a decoding error at the UE).
Alternatively, the UE may proceed with CQI reporting for all the
(apparently) triggered reporting sets on the corresponding PUSCHs
because the eNodeB will know which component carrier PUSCH it
wanted to carry the CQI feedback. Another alternative is to report
only one of the triggered sets of channel information feedback on
the corresponding PUSCH, where the set to report can be
pre-configured. Yet another alternative is to report the union of
the triggered sets of channel information feedback on only one
PUSCH, where the PUSCH for the report can be the PCC (if PUSCH on
PCC exists), or on a pre-determined CC (e.g., the PUSCH on the
component carrier with the minimum carrier frequency, or, the PUSCH
on the component carrier with the lowest order in RRC
configuration, etc.).
[0069] The association of a downlink component carrier PDSCH and an
uplink component carrier PUSCH can be by UE 250 based on a
broadcast message from eNodeB 210 (e.g., as part of a system
information block (SIB) message in LTE). That is, eNodeB 210 can
send the identification or selection of the associated UL CC and DL
CC in a broadcast message. Alternatively, a DL CC and an UL CC may
be associated via a cross-carrier indicator field (CIF) in the
PDCCH that controls cross-carrier signaling. Another example is to
associate a DL CC and an UL CC via a path loss measurement (e.g.,
by selecting the most robust uplink and downlink channels or by
matching the respective path losses). The association can be made
on a per cell basis or on a per UE basis.
[0070] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary system 400 capable of
implementing aspects of the systems and equipment described in
relation to the preceding figures. System 400 includes an eNodeB
410 and a UE 420. The eNodeB 410 may include a CQI configuration
component 412 that can configure a plurality of downlink component
carriers (such as downlink component carriers DL-CC.sub.1 through
DL-CC.sub.5) for a UE 420 as one or more reporting sets of
component carriers such as S.sub.D1 (comprising DL component
carriers CC1 and CC2), S.sub.D2 (comprising DL component carriers
CC3 and CC4) and S.sub.D3 (comprising DL component carriers CC4 and
CC5). The UE 420 may receive the configuration of the reporting
sets via upper layer signaling as described above. In general, the
sets may be disjoint sets or overlapping sets. The CQI
configuration component in the eNodeB 410 may also signal the
activation/deactivation of selected component carriers in the
reporting sets. Each DL CC may include a PDCCH in a given subframe,
but only one PDCCH among the configured DL CCs may trigger CQI
reporting in the given subframe.
[0071] As described above, the triggering PDCCH may trigger a
single carrier CQI report or one of a plurality of reporting sets
depending on the state of the triggering bits. In the case of the
four state reporting described above (e.g., using 3-bit mapping or
2-bit binary coding), for example, if the PDCCH on DL-CC1 is the
triggering PDCCH, then the CQI report might consist of a report on
DL-CC1 only, a report on reporting set SD1 and a report on one
other reporting set (e.g., SD2 or SD3). If the PDCCH on DL-CC3 is
the triggering PDCCH, then the CQI report might consist of a report
on DL-CC3 only, a report on reporting set SD2 and a report on one
other reporting set (e.g., SD1 or SD3).
[0072] It will be appreciated that, in general, any DL CC can
transmit the triggering (i.e., active) PDCCH and that the response
to any particular triggering bit state can be preconfigured by
upper layer signaling. Accordingly, the UE 420 may also include a
CQI configuration component 422 to store the reporting set
configuration information and a CQI feedback component 424,
configured to report CQI in response to the triggering PDCCH.
[0073] In general, the UE 420 responds to PDCCH triggering on one
of the DL CCs with a CQI report for the DL-CC reporting set
identified by the one or more triggering bits in the triggering
PDCCH, using the PUSCH scheduled by the triggering PDCCH (or a
default PUSCH such as the UL PCC PUSCH). The CQI feedback includes
CQI for all DL-CCs in the reporting set selected by the CQI
trigger, unless one or more of the DL-CCs in the reporting set is
deactivated, in which case the UE may exercise one of the options
described above (e.g., CQI report, no CQI report or dummy CQI
report) based on, for example, upper layer configuration
information received from the eNodeB. Although not shown, any
number of eNodeBs similar to eNodeB 410 can be included in system
400 and/or any number of UEs similar to UE 420 can be included in
system 400.
[0074] FIG. 5A is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method 500A
in a user equipment such as UE 420. The method begins at operation
502A where the UE determines one or more reporting sets, where each
set includes a plurality of component carriers. The configuration
of reporting sets may be received in one or more RRC messages and
may change as CCs configured for the UE change and/or their
activation status changes. The method may also include an operation
504A, where the UE determines activated/deactivated components
carriers among the one or more reporting sets. The configuration of
activated/deactivated component carriers may be received in one or
more RRC messages and may change as CCs configured for the UE
change. The method continues at operation 506A where the UE detects
a trigger for the transmission of aperiodic channel quality
information (CQI) on a downlink control channel. The method
concludes at operation 508A where the UE transmits an aperiodic CQI
report, on an uplink data channel corresponding to the downlink
control channel, for at least the activated component carriers in
the reporting set selected by the trigger.
[0075] FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary apparatus 500B such as may
perform the method 500A. The apparatus 500B may be as described in
connection with elements UE 116 in FIG. 1, UE 250 in FIG.2 and UE
420 in FIG. 4. As shown, the apparatus 500B may include a CQI
reporting set module 502B for determining one or more reporting
sets of a plurality of component carriers based on RRC signaling
received from an eNobeB such as the elements 102, 210 and 410 in
FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, respectively. The apparatus 500B may also include
an activation/ deactivation module 504B for determining the
activation/deactivation status of the plurality of component
carriers. The apparatus 500B may also include a trigger detection
module 506B for detecting a trigger for the transmission of
aperiodic channel quality information on a downlink control
channel. An apparatus 500B may also include a CQI transmission
module 508B for transmitting an aperiodic CQI report, on an uplink
data channel corresponding to the downlink control channel, for at
least the activated component carriers in a reporting set selected
by the trigger.
[0076] FIG. 6A is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method 600A
in a base station such as base station 102 in FIG. 1, base station
210 in FIG. 2 and eNodeB 410 in FIG. 4. Method 600A begins at
operation 602A where the base station signals to a UE (such as UE
116, UE 250 or UE 420) one or more reporting sets in a plurality of
component carriers. The method continues at operation 604A where
the base station signals to the UE the activation/deactivation
status of component carriers in the plurality of component
carriers. The signaling in operations 602A and 602B may be sent in
one or more RRC messages to the UE and may change as CCs configured
for the UE change or their activation status changes. The method
continues at operation 606A, where the base station transmits, on a
downlink control channel, a trigger for the transmission of
aperiodic channel quality information (CQI) by the UE. The method
concludes at operation 608A, where the base station receives, on an
uplink data channel corresponding to the downlink control channel,
an aperiodic CQI report for at least the activated component
carriers in a reporting set selected by the trigger.
[0077] FIG. 6B illustrates an apparatus 600B capable of performing
the method 600A. Apparatus 600B may be as described in connection
with elements 102, 210, and 410 in FIGS. 1, 2, and 4, respectively.
As shown, the apparatus 600B includes a CQI configuration module
602B for signaling a configuration for one or more reporting sets
of a plurality of component carriers and for signaling the
activation/deactivation status of each of the component carriers.
Apparatus 600B also includes a CQI triggering module 604B for
transmitting, on a downlink control channel, a trigger for the
transmission of aperiodic channel quality information (CQI). And
apparatus 600B also includes a CQI receiving module 606B for
receiving, on an uplink data channel corresponding to the downlink
control channel, an aperiodic CQI report for activated component
carriers in a reporting set selected by the trigger.
[0078] For purposes of illustration, the methods above are shown
and described as a series of operations. It is to be understood
that the methods are not limited by the order of operations, as
some operations can, in accordance with one or more embodiments,
occur in different orders and/or concurrently with other operations
from that shown and described herein. For example, those skilled in
the art will understand and appreciate that a method could
alternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states or
events, such as in a state diagram. Moreover, not all illustrated
operations may be required to implement a method in accordance with
one or more of the disclosed embodiment.
[0079] FIG. 7 illustrates an apparatus 700 within which the various
disclosed embodiments may be implemented. In particular, the
apparatus 700 that is shown in FIG. 7 may comprise at least a
portion of an eNodeB (such as the eNodeB 210 depicted in FIG. 2 or
the eNodeB 410 depicted in FIG. 7) or at least a portion of a UE
(such as the UE 250 depicted in FIG. 2 or the UE 420 depicted in
FIG. 7) The apparatus 700 that is depicted in FIG. 7 can be
resident within a wireless network and receive incoming data via,
for example, one or more receivers and/or the appropriate reception
and decoding circuitry (e.g., antennas, transceivers, demodulators
and the like). The apparatus 700 that is depicted in FIG. 7 can
also transmit outgoing data via, for example, one or more
transmitters and/or the appropriate encoding and transmission
circuitry (e.g., antennas, transceivers, modulators and the like).
Additionally, or alternatively, the apparatus 700 that is depicted
in FIG. 7 may be resident within a wired network.
[0080] FIG. 7 further illustrates that the apparatus 700 can
include a memory 702 that can retain instructions for performing
one or more operations, such as signal conditioning, analysis and
the like. Additionally, the apparatus 700 of FIG. 7 may include a
processor 704 that can execute instructions that are stored in the
memory 702 and/or instructions that are received from another
device. The instructions can relate to, for example, configuring or
operating the apparatus 700 or a related communications apparatus.
It should be noted that while the memory 702 that is depicted in
FIG. 7 is shown as a single block, it may comprise two or more
separate memories that constitute separate physical and/or logical
units. In addition, the memory while being communicatively
connected to the processor 704, may reside fully or partially
outside of the apparatus 700 that is depicted in FIG. 7. It is also
to be understood that one or more components, such as the
configuration component 412, the triggering component 414 and the
CQI feedback component 422 that are shown in FIG. 7, can exist
within a memory such as memory 702.
[0081] It will be appreciated that the memories that are described
in connection with the disclosed embodiments can be either volatile
memory or nonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and
nonvolatile memory. By way of illustration, and not limitation,
nonvolatile memory can include read only memory (ROM), programmable
ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically
erasable ROM (EEPROM) or flash memory. Volatile memory can include
random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By
way of illustration and not limitation, RAM is available in many
forms such as synchronous RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM),
synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM),
enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAIVI), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM) and direct
Rambus RAM (DRRAM).
[0082] It should also be noted that the apparatus 700 of FIG. 7 can
be employed with a user equipment or mobile device, and can be, for
instance, a module such as an SD card, a network card, a wireless
network card, a computer (including laptops, desktops, personal
digital assistants PDAs), mobile phones, smart phones or any other
suitable terminal that can be utilized to access a network. The
user equipment accesses the network by way of an access component
(not shown). In one example, a connection between the user
equipment and the access components may be wireless in nature, in
which access components may be the base station and the user
equipment is a wireless terminal. For instance, the terminal and
base stations may communicate by way of any suitable wireless
protocol, including but not limited to Time Divisional Multiple
Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency
Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM), FLASH OFDM, Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiple Access (OFDMA) or any other suitable protocol.
[0083] Access components can be an access node associated with a
wired network or a wireless network. To that end, access components
can be, for instance, a router, a switch and the like. The access
component can include one or more interfaces, e.g., communication
modules, for communicating with other network nodes. Additionally,
the access component can be a base station (or wireless access
point) in a cellular type network, wherein base stations (or
wireless access points) are utilized to provide wireless coverage
areas to a plurality of subscribers. Such base stations (or
wireless access points) can be arranged to provide contiguous areas
of coverage to one or more cellular phones and/or other wireless
terminals.
[0084] It is to be understood that the embodiments and features
that are described herein may be implemented by hardware, software,
firmware or any combination thereof. Various embodiments described
herein are described in the general context of methods or
processes, which may be implemented in one embodiment by a computer
program product, embodied in a computer-readable medium, including
computer-executable instructions, such as program code, executed by
computers in networked environments. As noted above, a memory
and/or a computer-readable medium may include removable and
non-removable storage devices including, but not limited to, Read
Only Memory (ROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), compact discs (CDs),
digital versatile discs (DVD) and the like. When implemented in
software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one
or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium.
Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and
communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer
of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media
may be any available media that can be accessed by a general
purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not
limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM,
EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage
or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be
used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of
instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a
general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose
or special-purpose processor.
[0085] Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable
medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website,
server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic
cable, or twisted pair, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,
or twisted pair are included in the definition of medium. Disk and
disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc,
optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray
disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs
reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above
should also be included within the scope of computer-readable
media.
[0086] Generally, program modules may include routines, programs,
objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular
tasks or implement particular abstract data types.
Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures and
program modules represent examples of program code for executing
steps of the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of
such executable instructions or associated data structures
represents examples of corresponding acts for implementing the
functions described in such steps or processes.
[0087] The various illustrative logics, logical blocks, modules,
and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed
herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose
processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application
specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array
(FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or
transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination
thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A
general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but, in the
alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor,
controller, microcontroller or state machine. A processor may also
be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a
combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of
microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a
DSP core, or any other such configuration. Additionally, at least
one processor may comprise one or more modules operable to perform
one or more of the steps and/or actions described above.
[0088] For a software implementation, the techniques described
herein may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions
and so on) that perform the functions described herein. The
software codes may be stored in memory units and executed by
processors. The memory unit may be implemented within the processor
and/or external to the processor, in which case it can be
communicatively coupled to the processor through various means as
is known in the art. Further, at least one processor may include
one or more modules operable to perform the functions described
herein.
[0089] The techniques described herein may be used for various
wireless communication systems such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA,
SC-FDMA and other systems. The terms "system" and "network" are
often used interchangeably. A CDMA system may implement a radio
technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA),
cdma2000, etc. UTRA includes Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and other
variants of CDMA. Further, cdma2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and
IS-856 standards. A TDMA system may implement a radio technology
such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA
system may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA
(E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE
802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM.RTM., etc. UTRA and E-UTRA
are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP
Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a release of UMTS that uses E-UTRA,
which employs OFDMA on the downlink and SC-FDMA on the uplink.
UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE and GSM are described in documents from an
organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP).
Additionally, cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from an
organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project 2" (3GPP2).
Further, such wireless communication systems may additionally
include peer-to-peer (e.g., user equipment-to-user equipment) ad
hoc network systems often using unpaired unlicensed spectrums,
802.xx wireless LAN, BLUETOOTH and any other short- or long-range,
wireless communication techniques.
[0090] Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA),
which utilizes single carrier modulation and frequency domain
equalization is a technique that can be utilized with the disclosed
embodiments. SC-FDMA has similar performance and essentially a
similar overall complexity as those of OFDMA systems. SC-FDMA
signal has lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) because of its
inherent single carrier structure. SC-FDMA can be utilized in
uplink communications where lower PAPR can benefit a user equipment
in terms of transmit power efficiency.
[0091] Moreover, various aspects or features described herein may
be implemented as a method, apparatus or article of manufacture
using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term
"article of manufacture" as used herein is intended to encompass a
computer program accessible from any computer-readable device,
carrier or media. For example, computer-readable media can include
but are not limited to magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk,
floppy disk, magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact
disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD), etc.), smart cards, and
flash memory devices (e.g., EPROM, card, stick, key drive, etc.).
Additionally, various storage media described herein can represent
one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing
information. The term "machine-readable medium" can include,
without being limited to, wireless channels and various other media
capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s)
and/or data. Additionally, a computer program product may include a
computer readable medium having one or more instructions or codes
operable to cause a computer to perform the functions described
herein.
[0092] Further, the steps and/or actions of a method or algorithm
described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be
embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a
processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may
reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory,
EEPROM memory, registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM
or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary
storage medium may be coupled to the processor, such that the
processor can read information from, and write information to, the
storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be
integral to the processor. Further, in some embodiments, the
processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC.
Additionally, the ASIC may reside in a user equipment (e.g. 420 in
FIG. 4). In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium
may reside as discrete components in a user equipment (e.g., 422 in
FIG. 4). Additionally, in some embodiments, the steps and/or
actions of a method or algorithm may reside as one or any
combination or set of codes and/or instructions on a machine
readable medium and/or computer readable medium, which may be
incorporated into a computer program product.
[0093] While the foregoing disclosure discusses illustrative
embodiments, it should be noted that various changes and
modifications could be made herein without departing from the scope
of the described embodiments as defined by the appended claims.
Accordingly, the described embodiments are intended to embrace all
such alterations, modifications and variations that fall within
scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, although elements of the
described embodiments may be described or claimed in the singular,
the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is
explicitly stated. Additionally, all or a portion of any embodiment
may be utilized with all or a portion of any other embodiments,
unless stated otherwise.
[0094] To the extent that the term "includes" is used in either the
detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be
inclusive in a manner similar to the term "comprising" as
"comprising" is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in
a claim. Furthermore, the term "or" as used in either the detailed
description or the claims is intended to mean an inclusive "or"
rather than an exclusive "or." That is, unless specified otherwise,
or clear from the context, the phrase "X employs A or B" is
intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That
is, the phrase "X employs A or B" is satisfied by any of the
following instances: X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A
and B. In addition, the articles "a" and "an" as used in this
application and the appended claims should generally be construed
to mean "one or more" unless specified otherwise or clear from the
context to be directed to a singular form.
* * * * *