U.S. patent application number 17/381955 was filed with the patent office on 2021-11-18 for reconfiguration of active component carrier set in multi-carrier wireless systems related application.
The applicant listed for this patent is Optis Wireless Technology, LLC. Invention is credited to Ghyslain Pelletier, Lars Sundstrom.
Application Number | 20210359886 17/381955 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 1000005749821 |
Filed Date | 2021-11-18 |
United States Patent
Application |
20210359886 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Pelletier; Ghyslain ; et
al. |
November 18, 2021 |
RECONFIGURATION OF ACTIVE COMPONENT CARRIER SET IN MULTI-CARRIER
WIRELESS SYSTEMS RELATED APPLICATION
Abstract
In a multi-carrier wireless system, a wireless mobile station
comprising a control circuit. The control circuit is configured to
receive first data according to a first configuration of two or
more component carriers. The control circuit is further configured
to receive signaling information indicating that a change of
configuration to a second component-carrier configuration is
pending, the change of configuration comprising a change in the
number of component carriers to be used for data transmission or a
change to a set of active component carriers, with the number of
active component carriers remaining the same. The control circuit
is further configured to selectively activate, de-activate, or
reconfigure one or more transceiver components during a
pre-determined guard interval of greater than one subframe, based
on the signaling information. The control circuit is further
configured to receive second data according to the second
component-carrier configuration, after the guard interval.
Inventors: |
Pelletier; Ghyslain; (Laval,
CA) ; Sundstrom; Lars; (Sodra Sandby, SE) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Optis Wireless Technology, LLC |
Plano |
TX |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
1000005749821 |
Appl. No.: |
17/381955 |
Filed: |
July 21, 2021 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
16518848 |
Jul 22, 2019 |
11102040 |
|
|
17381955 |
|
|
|
|
15816426 |
Nov 17, 2017 |
10411927 |
|
|
16518848 |
|
|
|
|
15249125 |
Aug 26, 2016 |
9853848 |
|
|
15816426 |
|
|
|
|
13498195 |
Mar 26, 2012 |
9462484 |
|
|
PCT/SE2009/051484 |
Dec 22, 2009 |
|
|
|
15249125 |
|
|
|
|
61247086 |
Sep 30, 2009 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04W 76/28 20180201;
H04L 27/2605 20130101; H04L 5/0064 20130101; H04L 5/001 20130101;
H04W 24/02 20130101; H04L 5/0037 20130101; H04L 5/0053 20130101;
H04L 5/0096 20130101; H04L 5/0087 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04L 27/26 20060101
H04L027/26; H04W 76/28 20060101 H04W076/28; H04L 5/00 20060101
H04L005/00; H04W 24/02 20060101 H04W024/02 |
Claims
1. A wireless mobile station configured for multi-carrier
operation, the wireless mobile station comprising a control circuit
configured to: receive first data according to a first
configuration of two or more component carriers; receive signaling
information indicating that a change of configuration to a second
component-carrier configuration is pending, the change of
configuration comprising a change in the number of component
carriers to be used for data transmission or a change to a set of
active component carriers, with the number of active component
carriers remaining the same; selectively activate, de-activate, or
reconfigure one or more transceiver components during a
pre-determined guard interval of greater than one subframe, based
on the signaling information; and receive second data according to
the second component-carrier configuration, after the guard
interval.
2. The wireless mobile station of claim 1, wherein the
pre-determined guard interval immediately follows the subframe in
which the signaling information is received.
3. The wireless mobile station of claim 1, wherein the control
circuit is further configured to delay an automatic-repeat-request
process corresponding to the mobile station by a number of
subframes equal to the pre-determined guard interval.
4. The wireless mobile station of claim 1, wherein the control
circuit is further configured to determine that an outgoing data
transmission is scheduled for the guard interval and to defer the
outgoing data transmission until after the pre-determined guard
interval.
5. The wireless mobile station of claim 4, wherein deferring the
data transmission until after the pre-determined guard interval
comprises performing a HARQ retransmission of the outgoing data
transmission.
6. The wireless mobile station of claim 1, wherein the change of
configuration comprises an assignment for the mobile station of at
least one component carrier that was previously unutilized to carry
data for the mobile station.
7. The wireless mobile station of claim 1, wherein the change of
configuration comprises a discontinuation of an assignment for the
mobile station of at least one component carrier that was
previously utilized to carry data for the mobile station.
8. The wireless mobile station of claim 1, wherein the change of
configuration comprises a change in the number of component
carriers to be used for data transmission, or a change to a set of
active component carriers with the number of active component
carriers remaining the same.
9. The wireless mobile station of claim 1, wherein the signaling is
Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) signaling.
10. A method in a wireless mobile station configured for
multi-carrier operation, the method comprising: receiving first
data according to a first configuration of two or more component
carriers; receiving signaling information indicating that a change
of configuration to a second component-carrier configuration is
pending, the change of configuration comprising a change in the
number of component carriers to be used for data transmission or a
change to a set of active component carriers, with the number of
active component carriers remaining the same; selectively
activating, de-activating, or reconfiguring one or more transceiver
components during a pre-determined guard interval of greater than
one subframe, based on the signaling information; and receiving
second data according to the second component-carrier
configuration, after the guard interval.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the pre-determined guard
interval immediately follows the subframe in which the signaling
information is received.
12. The method of claim 10, further comprising delaying an
automatic-repeat-request process corresponding to the mobile
station by a number of subframes equal to the pre-determined guard
interval.
13. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining that an
outgoing data transmission is scheduled for the guard interval and
deferring the outgoing data transmission until after the
pre-determined guard interval.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein deferring the data transmission
until after the pre-determined guard interval comprises performing
a HARQ retransmission of the outgoing data transmission.
15. The method of claim 10, wherein the change of configuration
comprises an assignment for the mobile station of at least one
component carrier that was previously unutilized to carry data for
the mobile station.
16. The method of claim 10, wherein the change of configuration
comprises a discontinuation of an assignment for the mobile station
of at least one component carrier that was previously utilized to
carry data for the mobile station.
17. The method of claim 10, wherein the change of configuration
comprises a change in the number of component carriers to be used
for data transmission, or a change to a set of active component
carriers with the number of active component carriers remaining the
same.
18. The method of claim 10, wherein the signaling is Physical
Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) signaling.
Description
RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation application of U.S.
application Ser. No. 16/518,848, filed Jul. 22, 2019 (pending),
which was a continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No.
15/816,426, filed Nov. 17, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,411,927,
which is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No.
15/249,125, filed Aug. 26, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,853,848, which
is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/498,195 filed
Mar. 26, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,462,484, which is a U.S.
national stage application under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 371 of
International Patent Application No. PCT/SE09/51484 filed Dec. 22,
2009, which claims priority to U.S. Application No. 61/247,086
filed Sep. 30, 2009.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The present invention is related to wireless communications
systems, and in particular is related to the operation of mobile
stations and base stations in a multi-carrier wireless system, in
which data can be transmitted to or from a mobile station using two
or more distinct, separately modulated, carrier frequencies.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Forthcoming cellular system standards, such as the so-called
"Long-Term Evolution" (LTE) systems developed by participants in
the 3<rd>-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), will provide
a much larger degree of flexibility than currently operating
wireless networks. In particular, systems deployed according to
Release 10 of the 3GPP LTE specifications will be better able than
existing systems to exploit the full potential of the new
technologies introduced in LTE, both in terms of system and
per-user throughput, and will be better suited for co-existence and
deployment in legacy bands.
[0004] A mobile station (a user equipment, or UE, in 3GPP
terminology) designed for such future standards will generally be
required to support a wide range of bandwidths, in many cases
aggregated within or over multiple bands. Carrier aggregation, in
which two or more separately modulated carrier signals in distinct
frequency bands are simultaneously used to carry uplink or downlink
traffic for a given mobile station, may be viewed as a scheme for
providing flexible bandwidth configuration on a sub-frame basis.
With this dynamic re-allocation of potentially large chunks of
bandwidth, future systems will be able to quickly respond to users'
varying needs for data transmission throughput.
[0005] In such a multi-carrier system, such as for an LTE
release-10 connection between a network and mobile station, there
will be an active set of carriers that are available for carrying
traffic for that mobile; these carriers are referred to as
component carriers. The mobile station will not be required to
continuously receive and transmit on all component carriers in the
active set--a given component carrier needs to be processed by the
mobile station's receiver or transmitter only if there is a data
transmission assignment or grant for that component carrier.
[0006] Generally, multiple component carriers need to be
simultaneously used for a given mobile station only if those data
transmissions are frequent and large enough. As a result,
discontinuous-reception (DRX) and discontinuous-transmission (DTX)
mechanisms will be used to allow the mobile station to power down
parts of the receiver and transmitter during times when no data
needs to be received or transmitted on one or more of the component
carriers in the active set this approach allows for a dramatic
reduction in power consumption when data throughput requirements
are very low or moderate, compared to the power consumed during
maximum throughput scenarios, i.e., when all of two or more
available component carriers are fully utilized. Indeed, the use of
such schemes is generally considered to be a prerequisite to obtain
an acceptable level of power consumption in multi-carrier-capable
mobile stations.
[0007] In the standardization of multi-carrier operation in LTE
release 10, the exact operation of DRX and DTX has not yet been
specified. In particular, issues regarding whether and how DRX and
DTX for one component carrier will relate to DRX and DTX for other
component carriers has not been resolved. One possibility is that
all component carriers always follow the same DRX/DTX cycle. An
alternative approach that provides a greater degree of flexibility
is to permit each component carrier to have its own independent
DRX/DTX cycle.
SUMMARY
[0008] In a multi-carrier system, discontinuous receive (DRX) and
discontinuous transmit (DTX) processes need to be predictable well
in advance of changes in component carrier configuration, to allow
for careful scheduling of power-down, power-up and/or
reconfiguration of transceiver components. This careful scheduling
is necessary to avoid interfering with the ongoing reception and
transmission. This scheduling is particularly complicated in
multi-carrier systems because the number and/or identities of
component carriers scheduled for a given interval may vary from one
sub-frame to the next, often in ways that are unpredictable.
[0009] Accordingly, in various embodiments of the present
invention, potential problems from reconfiguring mobile station
resources to accommodate changes in component-carrier configuration
are mitigated by inserting a guard period each time the
configuration of component carriers changes due to an
inter-component-carrier assignment, so that power-up/down and/or
radio reconfiguration can be carried out without interfering with
ongoing transmission. In other words, a guard period corresponding
to at least one subframe is inserted prior to configuration changes
to allow for power-up, power-down, and/or radio reconfiguration
events. It is readily understood that the duration of this guard
period could be one or several transmission time intervals.
[0010] Embodiments of the present invention comprise base stations
and mobile stations, each configured to exploit a guard interval
accompanying changes of component-carrier configuration.
Corresponding methods for operating a base station and a mobile
station are also disclosed. For example, an exemplary base station
according to some embodiments of the invention comprises a control
circuit configured to transmit first data to a mobile station
according to a first configuration of two or more component
carriers, to determine that a change of configuration to a second
component-carrier configuration is required, and to signal the
change of configuration to the mobile station, using the first
configuration of component carriers. The control circuit is further
configured to then refrain from transmitting data to the mobile
station during a pre-determined guard interval of at least one
transmission-time interval subsequent to the signaling of the
change of configuration. After the guard interval, the control
circuit then transmits second data to the mobile station according
to the second component-carrier configuration.
[0011] In some embodiments, the pre-determined guard interval
consists of a single transmission-time interval, such as an LTE
subframe, although other guard interval lengths are possible. The
precise timing of the guard interval may also vary, depending on
the embodiment--in some embodiments, the pre-determined guard
interval immediately follows the transmission-time interval in
which the change of configuration is signaled, while in others, the
guard interval is delayed by one or more transmission-time
intervals following the transmission-time interval in which the
change of configuration is signaled. In the latter case, the base
station may continue transmitting the first data according to the
first configuration for at least one transmission-time interval
subsequent to the signaling of the change of configuration and
prior to the pre-determined guard interval.
[0012] Several different changes to component-carrier configuration
may trigger the operations summarized above. For instance, in some
embodiments the triggering change in configuration may be limited
to a change in the number of component carriers to be used for data
transmission, while in other embodiments, any change to the set of
active component carriers may trigger the use of a guard interval,
including those changes where the number of active component
carriers remains the same.
[0013] Because the scheduling of the guard interval may coincide
with one or more previously scheduled processes from time to time,
the base station may be further configured to automatically adjust
those processes to accommodate the guard interval, or to mitigate
the guard interval's effect. For instance, in some embodiments, the
base station may be further configured to delay an
automatic-repeat-request process corresponding to the mobile
station by a number of transmission-time intervals equal to the
pre-determined guard interval.
[0014] An exemplary wireless mobile station configured for
multi-carrier operation according to the techniques disclosed
herein comprises a control circuit configured to receive first data
from a base station according to a first configuration of two or
more component carriers and to receive signaling information
indicating that a change of configuration to a second
component-carrier configuration is pending. In response to the
signaling information, the wireless mobile station selectively
activates de-activates or reconfigures one or more transceiver
components during a pre-determined guard interval of at least one
transmission-time interval, and then receives second data from the
base station according to the second component-carrier
configuration, after the expiry of the guard interval.
[0015] Again, the pre-determined guard interval may consist of a
single transmission-time interval, in some embodiments, although
other guard intervals are possible. Likewise, while in some
embodiments the pre-determined guard interval immediately follows
the transmission-time interval in which the signaling information
is received, in other embodiments the guard interval is instead
delayed by one or more transmission-time intervals following the
transmission-time interval in which the change of configuration is
signaled; in these latter embodiments the mobile station may
continue receiving the first data according to the first
configuration for at least one transmission-time interval
subsequent to receiving the signaling information and prior to the
pre-determined guard interval.
[0016] As was the case with the base station discussed above, a
wireless mobile station configured according to the present
invention may be further configured to adjust one or more already
scheduled processes to accommodate the guard interval accompanying
a component-carrier configuration change. For instance, in some
embodiments the mobile station is further configured to delay an
automatic-repeat-request process corresponding to the mobile
station by a number of transmission-time intervals equal to the
pre-determined guard interval. In these and other embodiments, the
mobile station may be further configured to determine that an
outgoing data transmission is scheduled for the guard interval and
to defer the data transmission until after the pre-determined guard
interval. In some embodiments, this deferral of the data
transmission until after the pre-determined guard interval may
comprise performing a HARQ retransmission of the outgoing data
transmission.
[0017] Methods corresponding to the various base station and mobile
stations embodiments summarized above are also disclosed. Of
course, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present
invention is not limited to the above features, advantages,
contexts or examples, and will recognize additional features and
advantages upon reading the following detailed description and upon
viewing the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] FIG. 1 is a timing diagram illustrating effects of a
component-carrier configuration change on a wireless receiver.
[0019] FIG. 2 is another timing diagram illustrating the use of a
guard interval according to some embodiments of the present
invention.
[0020] FIG. 3 illustrates functional elements of an exemplary base
station and an exemplary wireless receiver.
[0021] FIG. 4 is a process flow diagram illustrating an exemplary
method for controlling data transmission in a multi-carrier
wireless network.
[0022] FIG. 5 is a process flow diagram illustrating a
corresponding method for controlling receiver operation in a
multi-carrier wireless network.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0023] The introduction to wireless systems of carrier aggregation,
i.e., multi-carrier operation, calls for mobile stations having the
flexibility to reconfigure their radio transceiver resources
depending on which component carriers (CC) are active (i.e.,
actually or potentially carrying control and/or traffic data for
that mobile station) at a given point in time. A brute-force
transceiver design might have multiple and independent transceiver
entities, e.g., one for each carrier or perhaps one for each set of
contiguous carriers. More elaborate receiver and transmitter
architectures that are specifically tailored for carrier
aggregation may be unable to reconfigure on a per-CC basis, because
some transceiver parts are shared for the processing of several
carriers. However, still more sophisticated designs may allow the
selective activation, deactivation, or reconfiguration of various
receiver and/or transmitter components in response to dynamic
changes in the configuration of component carriers, to minimize
power consumption.
[0024] A potential problem with multi-carrier receiver/transmitter
designs stems from the fact that events such as power-up,
power-down, or reconfiguration of some blocks of a transceiver may
not be acceptable while data is being received or transmitted on
any carrier. Such events, even if they are carried out with respect
to blocks that are not currently being used for transmission and/or
reception, may nevertheless interfere with the operation of active
blocks.
[0025] One reason for this is that such events can generate
transient responses (voltage and current spikes, voltage offsets,
etc.) that may be coupled to devices and nodes of active blocks
through various means, including, but not limited to,
voltage/current supply wires and traces, capacitive and inductive
coupling, substrate coupling, and thermal coupling. Coupling of
these transient responses to active functional blocks of the
transceiver may interfere with ongoing transmission and reception.
This interference may be direct, e.g., via coupling to nodes and
devices operating on the desired signals, or indirect, e.g., via
coupling to nodes and devices that control the behavior (gain,
transfer function, oscillation frequency etc.) of active functional
blocks, or both.
[0026] If all scheduling of component carriers is known
sufficiently in advance of any changes in component-carrier
configuration, this problem can be reduced by simply activating,
de-activating, or re-configuring transceiver components ahead of
time, during an interval in which no data is being received or
transmitted. However, the allocation of component carriers in
multi-carrier systems may not be that predictable. For example, in
LTE standardization discussions it has been proposed that a first
downlink component carrier can contain an assignment, for a given
mobile station, referring to a second component carrier that was
previously not being used to carry data for the mobile station.
This results in a change of component-carrier configuration that
cannot be predicted ahead of time such that power up/down and/or
radio reconfiguration can be scheduled without interfering with
ongoing transmission.
[0027] The discussion that follows is based generally on
terminology and operation of 3GPP LTE systems, and in particular
discusses aspects of 3GPP LTE release 10. However, those skilled in
the art will appreciate that the inventive techniques described
herein are by no means limited to LTE systems or to 3GPP-specified
systems. Rather, the inventive techniques described below may be
applied to any system supporting a carrier aggregation scenario
where a varying number of component carriers are received and/or
transmitted more-or-less discontinuously.
[0028] In the time domain, a component carrier transmission may be
divided into subframes, where a subframe represents the largest
entity in time that cannot generally be broken into smaller
discontinuous pieces of transmission (unless, perhaps, only control
data is sent). In LTE, the sub-frames consists of a number of
contiguous Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
symbols. Between any two contiguous OFDM symbols or sub-frames
there is no explicit guard period allowing for a change of
transceiver operation mode. There is, however, a so-called cyclic
prefix (CP) at the beginning of every OFDM symbol to reduce
channel-induced inter-symbol interference. Depending on the actual
implementation of a transceiver, it is conceivable that all or part
of the CP could be used for reconfiguration or power up/down of
individual blocks, so that reconfiguration of the transceiver to
accommodate changes in component-carrier configuration can be
carried out without impairing the transceiver's performance.
Unfortunately, in most cases the CP is orders of magnitude shorter
than would be needed for this purpose (typically some 5 us in LTE).
As a result, this approach is simply not practical.
[0029] A mobile station transceiver configured according to some
embodiments of the present invention supports carrier aggregation
for the uplink (TX), downlink (RX), or both. To fully exploit the
potential for reduced power consumption made possible by the
techniques discussed below, the transceiver should have one or more
components or functional blocks that can be selectively activated,
de-activated, or reconfigured, depending on how many and/or which
component carriers are being processed. Some such transceivers may
be divided into a number of distinct transmitter and/or receiver
units where each such unit is used to process at least one
component carrier (CC). Alternative or additionally, a mobile
station transceiver may have units (e.g., individual components or
groups of components acting as a functional block) that can be
reconfigured to handle varying numbers of component carriers, with
varying power consumption. These units may be any sort of block or
combination of blocks typically found in a transceiver, including
amplifiers, filters, mixers, ADCs, DACs, PLLs, digital circuitry,
etc. The purpose of introducing this partitioning or flexibility is
to allow for a more power efficient operation of the transceiver as
the number of CCs and their properties change.
[0030] Generally speaking, the basic building blocks of receivers
and transmitters differ with respect to the time it takes to change
the mode of operation, e.g., the time it takes to power-up,
power-down, or reconfigure a block. Typically, the phase-locked
loop (PLL) circuits responsible for synthesizing local oscillator
signals used for frequency translation are the circuits that take
the longest time to start-up or reconfigure--this time may be on
the order of some 100 microseconds from cold start to stable
output. Filters, on the other hand, naturally have associated time
constants related to the bandwidth of the filters, but these time
constants are typically much smaller than those associated with a
PLL circuit. Other blocks like amplifiers, mixers, etc., may have
no intrinsic time constant of significance, at least not with
respect to their signal paths. Nevertheless, even these blocks may
need a substantial amount of time to reach stable operation simply
because there are time constants associated with power supply,
biasing, and decoupling networks. Some blocks may, however, have a
change of mode of operation duration that is of no practical
importance, e.g., digital circuitry and switching of signals.
[0031] Discontinuous receive (DRX) and discontinuous transmit (DTX)
mechanisms are generally well known, and serve as the basis to
enable regularly turning off the receiver and transmitter,
respectively, or parts thereof, when the data throughput is small
or zero. While it is straightforward to schedule power-up and
power-down events for the single-carrier case based on the known
DRX/DTX cycles for the single carrier, the situation becomes more
complicated for a transceiver supporting carrier aggregation. In
this latter case, power-up and power-down of any block may need to
be scheduled not only based on the carrier to be processed but also
with respect to the activity of all other carriers, for the reasons
discussed above.
[0032] In some cases, the discussion that follows will be limited,
for the sake of clarity, to DRX cycles and to a mobile station's
receiver(s). However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that
corresponding scenarios and proposed procedures can be applied to
DTX and the mobile station's transmitter side instead, or to the
combined operation of receivers and transmitters.
[0033] FIG. 1 illustrates a scenario including two receive CCs,
i.e., two downlink component carriers in the mobile station's
active set of component carriers. At the beginning of the time
frame illustrated in FIG. 1, there is no data for transmission, and
thus both component carriers are inactive. However, CC #1 has a
predictable active period on subframe 3 (e.g., according to a
periodic DRX cycle), and therefore the required parts of the
transceiver can be powered-up and configured for reception of CC #1
well ahead of time, say in subframe 2. Thus, the activation of
transceiver components to handle the reception of CC #1 in subframe
3 doesn't interfere with the transmission in any way.
[0034] Given such predictability of downlink transmissions, active
blocks (AB) and non-active blocks (NAB) in time can be defined,
where each AB defines a period in time where no detrimental power
up/down and/or radio configuration should take place. Thus,
power-up/down and radio configuration should preferably be
scheduled only in non-active blocks (NABS).
[0035] But in the pictured scenario, the downlink in subframe 3 of
CC #1 contains an inter-CC assignment referring to CC #2 in the
next subframe. In other words, the mobile station learns during
subframe 3 that it must be prepared to receive CC #2 by the start
of subframe 4. If portions of the transceiver have previously been
de-activated, this inter-CC assignment may require a power-up
and/or reconfiguration of parts of the transceiver to accommodate
the reception of CC #2. However, since this requirement could not
have been predicted ahead of time, there is no NAB where it can
take place without potentially interfering with the ongoing
reception. This is seen in the figure, which indicates when the
transceiver blocks associated with CC #1 and CC #2, respectively,
can be powered up. Because the power-up of blocks associated with
receiving CC #2 can only be powered up during subframe 3, this
power-up activity is potentially detrimental to the ongoing
reception of data from CC #1.
[0036] To avoid this problem, a new technique for handling
component carrier (CC) set reconfiguration is disclosed herein.
According to several embodiments of the invention, the mobile
station and the base station (evolved node B, or eNodeB, in 3GPP
terminology) are each configured according to the following rule:
if signaling in subframe k indicates a subsequent change in
component-carrier configuration, relative to the status at subframe
k, then at least one subsequent subframe (e.g., subframe k+1 to
subframe k+x, where x>0) should not be used for any signaling or
traffic data for or from that mobile station. In other words, a
guard interval of at least one subframe (or other transmission-time
interval) is inserted between the indication of a change in
configuration and the initiation of signaling or data transmission
according to that new configuration.
[0037] FIG. 2 illustrates an inter-component-carrier assignment
where the base station performs scheduling according to one
embodiment of this approach. As was the case in FIG. 1, signaling
received via CC #1 at subframe 3 indicates that the mobile station
should activate component carrier #2, to receive traffic data or to
monitor control channel signaling, or both. However, unlike the
scenario illustrated in FIG. 1, a guard interval of one subframe is
inserted first (at subframe 4), so that component carrier #2
becomes active beginning at subframe 5. This provides an
opportunity to power-up any necessary receiver circuitry (or
re-configure active circuitry) during subframe 4, such that the
power-up does not interfere with data reception on any of the
active channels.
[0038] As suggested above, the guard interval may be one or several
subframes (or other transmission-time interval, in systems other
than LTE). Further, although the guard interval is shown in FIG. 2
as immediately succeeding the interval in which the configuration
change is signalled, the guard interval could be delayed by one or
more subframes in some embodiments.
[0039] Since the eNodeB in an LTE system controls the scheduling of
data transmissions, those skilled in the art will appreciate that
in some embodiments it may be sufficient that the eNodeB is
configured according to the appropriate "rule" for inserting guard
intervals, with the mobile station simply activating or
de-activating component carriers as it receives scheduling
information. In other embodiments, however, mobile stations may be
specifically configured to follow the same rule, to maintain
synchronization with the base station.
[0040] In some embodiments, the DRX (or DTX) procedure is
configured so that a guard interval is inserted for any change in
component-carrier configuration, including those changes where the
active set of component carriers remains the same size. In other
embodiments, dynamic component-carrier-configuration changes may be
limited to a change in the number of component carriers that are
used from one period to another, such as from a single component
carrier to two component carriers, and back again. In some
embodiments, then, a guard interval may be inserted in response to
an indication that the number of component carriers to be used in a
subsequent subframe is changing. In other embodiments, a more
generalized technique may be used that takes into account that the
number of component carriers may remain the same while the set of
active component carriers changes.
[0041] Embodiments of the invention thus include a base station
(e.g., an LTE eNodeB) configured to selectively transmit control
data and/or traffic data to a given mobile station over one or
several of two or more component carriers. Some embodiments may
also (or instead) be configured to receive data and/or traffic data
from a given mobile station over one or several of two or more
component carriers. In either case, the configuration of active
component carriers (i.e., component carriers that may carry control
data or traffic data, or both, from or to the mobile station) may
change on a fast basis (e.g., via PDCCH signaling in an LTE
system). A functional block diagram of one such embodiment is
pictured in FIG. 3, which illustrates an eNodeB 310, comprising
radio circuits 312 and signal processing and control circuits 314,
which in turn include a scheduler 316 for planning and coordinating
uplink and downlink transmissions between the eNodeB 310 and one or
more mobile stations (including UE 320, in FIG. 3.)
[0042] To facilitate the use of at least partly independent DRX
(and/or DTX) state machines for each component carrier, a base
station according to some embodiments of the present invention is
further configured to carry out the process illustrated generally
in FIG. 4. Thus, as shown at block 410, the base station is
configured to transmit control data and/or traffic data to the
mobile station according to a first component-carrier
configuration. After determining that a
component-carrier-configuration change is needed, as indicated at
block 420, the base station signals the required configuration
change to the mobile station, as illustrated at block 430. Of
course, the change in configuration has not yet occurred, so this
signaling is carried out using the first component-carrier
configuration.
[0043] As discussed above, the change in component-carrier
configuration may be delayed by several transmission-time
intervals, in some embodiments. Thus, in some embodiments, data may
continue to be transmitted according to the first component-carrier
configuration for one or more transmission-time intervals following
the signaling of a configuration change, as illustrated in FIG.
440.
[0044] In any case, however, a pre-determined guard interval of at
least one transmission-time interval is introduced at some point
after the signaling of a configuration change, during which guard
interval the base station refrains from transmitting data. This is
illustrated at block 450 of FIG. 4. As discussed at length above,
this allows the mobile station adequate time to reconfigure its
transceiver resources to eliminate or mitigate adverse consequences
that might otherwise result from the powering-up, powering-down, or
reconfiguring of radio resources while simultaneously receiving
data. After the guard interval has expired, transmission of control
data and/or traffic data according to the changed component carrier
configuration resumes, as shown at block 460.
[0045] Other embodiments of the invention include a mobile station
configured to selectively receive control data and/or traffic data
from a base station over one or several of two or more component
carriers. Some embodiments may also (or instead) be configured to
transmit data and/or traffic data over one or several of two or
more component carriers. In either case, the configuration of
active component carriers (i.e., component carriers that may carry
control data or traffic data, or both, from or to the mobile
station) may change on a fast basis (e.g., via PDCCH signaling in
an LTE system). Referring back to FIG. 3, a functional block
diagram of one such exemplary mobile station configured according
to the inventive techniques disclosed herein is pictured. The
illustrated mobile station comprises radio circuits 322 and
baseband processing and control circuits 324, which in turn include
a DRX/DTX controller 326, which handles, among other things, the
scheduling and controlling of radio resources according to
scheduling information received from eNodeB 310. Thus, DRX/DTX
controller 326 generates control signals that activate,
de-activate, and/or re-configure portions of the radio circuits 322
as needed, depending upon downlink/uplink resource grants, active
DRX/DTX cycles, and the current component-carrier
configuration.
[0046] To facilitate the use of at least partly independent DRX
(and/or DTX) state machines for each component carrier, a mobile
station according to various embodiments of the present invention
is further configured to carry out the method illustrated generally
in FIG. 5. Thus, as shown at block 510, the mobile station first
receives control data and/or traffic data from the base station
according to a first component-carrier configuration. At some
point, the mobile station receives signaling information indicating
that a component-carrier-configuration change is pending, as
indicated at block 520.
[0047] As discussed above in connection with FIG. 4, the actual
configuration change indicated may be deferred by one or more
transmission-time intervals following the signaling of the
change--the length of this deferral may be pre-determined, in some
embodiments, or included in the signaling information, in others.
Accordingly, in some embodiments of the invention, the mobile
station may continue to receive data transmitted according to the
first component-carrier configuration for one or more transmission
time intervals following the signaling of a configuration change,
as shown at block 530. Whether immediately after the signaling, or
several transmission-time-intervals later, however, a
pre-determined guard interval is scheduled in response to the
signaling information. During this guard interval, the mobile
station's control circuitry (e.g., the DRX/DTX controller 326 of
FIG. 3) selectively activates, deactivates, and/or reconfigures one
or more receiver circuits, as shown at block 540. The particular
receiver circuits that are activated, de-activated, or
re-configured are selected based on the
component-carrier-configuration change; thus the signaling
information is used to determine which receiver circuits are
affected. Finally, after expiry of the guard interval, reception of
control data and/or traffic data is resumed, but according to the
changed component-carrier configuration. This is illustrated at
block 550.
[0048] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that insertion of a
guard interval according to the techniques described above may have
an impact on automatic-repeat-request (ARQ) processes, especially
synchronous processes. There are several ways to handle this. One
approach is to simply shift any required or expected ACK/NACK or
scheduled uplink transmission in time, e.g., by a number of
sub-frames equal to the length of the guard interval. Another
approach is to handle scheduled uplink transmissions and/or ARQ
feedback in a way similar to that currently specified in LTE
standards for measurement gaps. In particular, 3GPP TS 36.321
specifies that conflicts between scheduled uplink transmissions and
measurement gaps are handled as follows: [0049] When a configured
uplink grant is indicated during a measurement gap and indicates an
UL-SCH transmission during a measurement gap, the UE processes the
grant but does not transmit on UL-SCH. [0050] [ . . . ] [0051]
NOTE: When no UL-SCH transmission can be made due to the occurrence
of a measurement gap, no HARQ feedback can be received and a
non-adaptive retransmission follows.
[0052] In other words, the UL-SCH transmission is cancelled, but
the corresponding HARQ (Hybrid-ARQ) process will perform a
non-adaptive HARQ retransmission at the next HARQ round-trip-time
(RTT). The same procedure can be adapted to accommodate conflicts
between scheduled uplink transmissions and guard intervals in
various embodiments of the present invention.
[0053] Similarly, conflicts between measurement gaps and HARQ
feedback are handled in TS 36.321 as follows: [0054] if there is a
measurement gap at the time of the HARQ feedback reception for this
transmission and if the MAC PDU was not obtained from the Msg3
buffer: --set HARQ_FEEDBACK to ACK at the time of the HARQ feedback
reception for this transmission.
[0055] In other words, the HARQ process is suspended if the HARQ
feedback cannot be received.
[0056] Again, the same procedure can be adapted to accommodate
conflicts between HARQ feedback (or other ARQ or error
detection/correction feedback) in various embodiments of the
invention. For example, control circuits in any of the base
stations and/or mobile stations described above may be further
configured to automatically delay an automatic-repeat-request
process that is affected by a configuration change by a number of
transmission-time intervals equal to the pre-determined guard
interval. Thus, for example, if a base station would normally have
expected a HARQ retransmission at subframe 5, but that subframe is
now pre-empted by a guard interval of one subframe, the base
station may be configured to adjust the corresponding HARQ process
to anticipate the retransmission at subframe 6 instead. In some
embodiments, all pending HARQ processes for a given mobile station
may be delayed by an interval equal to the guard interval
length.
[0057] Similar adjustments may be carried out at the mobile
station. For instance, some embodiments of the mobile stations
discussed above may be configured to automatically delay one or
more automatic-repeat-request processes by a number of
transmission-time intervals equal to the pre-determined guard
interval, in response to a configuration change. In some
embodiments, the mobile station's control circuitry may be more
generally configured to determine that an outgoing data
transmission is scheduled for the guard interval and to defer the
data transmission until after the pre-determined guard interval. In
some cases, this may simply mean delaying scheduled data
transmissions. In other cases, the mobile station may be configured
to behave as if it had actually transmitted the scheduled data at
the guard interval. Because no data was actually sent, the mobile
station will subsequently receive a NACK (or may assume that one is
received), invoking normal HARQ retransmission procedures. Thus, in
some embodiments, the deferral of data transmission until after the
pre-determined guard interval effectively comprises performing a
HARQ retransmission of the outgoing data transmission, where the
HARQ retransmission is in fact the first transmission of the
data.
[0058] Referring once more to the illustration of a wireless system
300 in FIG. 3, those skilled in the art will appreciate that only
simplified block diagrams of eNodeB 310 and mobile station 320 are
provided, as those skilled in the art are familiar with the
detailed construction of these nodes and those details are
unnecessary to a complete understanding of the present invention.
While the details of an eNodeB 310 constructed according to the
current invention will vary, those skilled in the art will
appreciate that an eNodeB 310 configured to carry out one or more
of the scheduling techniques described herein may comprise the
basic elements pictured in FIG. 3, including radio circuits 312,
configured according to the LTE specifications to communicate with
one or more mobile stations, including mobile station 320, and
signal processing and control circuits 314, again configured
according to LTE specifications for communicating with mobile
stations and the supporting 3GPP network. Signal processing &
control circuits 314 comprises a scheduler function 316, configured
according to one or more of the techniques described above for
scheduling uplink and/or downlink transmissions on the multiple
carriers (carriers 1 to J) available. Those skilled in the art will
further appreciate that signal processing & control circuits
314 and scheduler function 316 may be implemented using one or
several microprocessors, digital signal processors, special-purpose
digital hardware, and the like, configured with appropriate
software (stored in one or more memory devices, not shown) and/or
firmware, as necessary, to carry out LTE communication protocols
and the one or more of the particular scheduling techniques
described above.
[0059] Likewise, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the
details of a mobile station 320 will vary, but that a mobile
station 320 configured to carry out one or more of the techniques
described herein may comprise the basic elements pictured in FIG.
3, including radio circuits 322, configured according to the LTE
specifications to communicate with one or more eNodeBs, such as
eNodeB 310. Mobile station 320 further comprises baseband
processing and control circuits 324, again configured according to
LTE specifications for operating within an LTE system and the
supporting 3GPP network. Baseband processing & control circuits
324 comprise a DRX/DTX control function 326, configured according
to one or more of the techniques described above. In particular,
DRX/DTX function 326 generates control signals to activate,
deactivate, and/or re-configure portions of radio circuits 322,
depending on scheduling information received from eNodeB 310 and in
accordance with pre-determined scheduling rules that provide for
the use of guard periods to prevent or reduce the need for radio
configuration changes during subframes in which receive or transmit
functions are active.
[0060] Once more, those skilled in the art will appreciate that
baseband processing & control circuits 324 and DRX/DTX control
function 326 may be implemented using one or several
microprocessors, digital signal processors, special-purpose digital
hardware, and the like, configured with appropriate software
(stored in one or more memory devices, not shown) and/or firmware,
as necessary, to carry out LTE communication protocols and one or
more of the DRX/DTX techniques described herein.
[0061] Of course, the preceding descriptions of various techniques
for implementing DRX/DTX and other transceiver resource management
functionality in a multi-carrier environment are given for purposes
of illustration and example, and those skilled in the art will
appreciate that the methods, apparatus, and systems described above
can be readily adapted for other systems than those specifically
described herein. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate, of
course, that the present invention may be carried out in other ways
than those specifically set forth herein without departing from
essential characteristics of the invention. Accordingly, the
exemplary embodiments presented herein are thus to be considered in
all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.
[0062] The present invention may, of course, be carried out in
other ways than those specifically set forth herein without
departing from essential characteristics of the invention. The
present embodiments are to be considered in all respects as
illustrative and not restrictive, and all changes coming within the
meaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended
to be embraced therein.
* * * * *