ES2807779T3 - A procedure and apparatus to support the large service data unit (SDU) - Google Patents

Abstract

A procedure (900) that segments or concatenates service data units, SDU, radio link control, RLC, into protocol data units, PDU, RLC, the procedure being executed by a wireless communications apparatus and comprising: receiving (902) a first RLC SDU and a second RLC SDU; divide (904) the information from the first RLC SDU into a first payload part and a second payload part, and the information from the second RLC SDU into a third payload part and a quarter payload part, in where the second payload part and the fourth payload part are limited to a maximum size, wherein the maximum size corresponds to a size of a length indicator field, LI; forming a first RLC PDU using the first payload part; forming a second RLC PDU using a concatenated payload part, wherein the concatenated payload part is obtained by concatenating (908) the second payload part and the third payload part; setting (906) the LI field comprised in a header of the second RLC PDU to indicate the size of the information contained in the second payload part; forming a third RLC PDU using the fourth payload; and dispatch (910) the first RLC PDU, the second RLC PDU and the third RLC PDU, wherein the first payload part of the first RLC PDU and the third payload part of the second RLC PDU are not limited by the maximum size.

Description

DESCRIPTION

A procedure and apparatus to support the large service data unit (SDU)

BACKGROUND

I. Field

[0001] The following description refers generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to the segmentation and / or concatenation of radio link control (RLC) service data units (SDUs) into protocol data units ( PDU) RLC, where RLC SDUs typically have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes.

II. Background

[0002] Wireless communication systems are widely used to provide various types of communication; for example, voice and / or data can be provided through such wireless communication systems. A typical wireless communication system, or network, can provide multiple users with access to one or more shared resources (eg, bandwidth, transmission power, etc.). For example, a system may use a variety of multiple access techniques, such as frequency division multiplexing (FDM), time division multiplexing (TDM), code division multiplexing (CDM), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. (OFDM), 3GPP long-term evolution systems (LTE), and others.

[0003] In general, multiple access wireless communication systems can simultaneously support communications for multiple access terminals. Each access terminal can communicate with one or more base stations through forward and reverse link transmissions. Forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the access terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the access terminals to the base stations. This communication link can be established using a single-input, single-output system, a multiple-input single-output system, or a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) system.

[0004] MIMO systems commonly employ multiple ( N ^t ) transmitting antennas and multiple ( N ^r ) receiving antennas for data transmission. A MIMO channel formed by the N ^t transmitting antennas and the N ^r receiving antennas can be decomposed into N ^s independent channels, which can be called spatial channels, where N ^s < {N ^t , N ^r }. Each of the N ^s independent channels corresponds to a dimension. Additionally, MIMO systems can provide improved performance ( eg, higher spectral efficiency, higher throughput, and / or higher reliability) by utilizing the additional dimensions created by multiple transmit and receive antennas.

[0005] MIMO systems can support various duplexing techniques to divide forward and reverse link communications over a common physical medium. For example, frequency division duplexing (FDD) systems can use different frequency regions for forward link and reverse link communications. In addition, in time division duplexing (TDD) systems, communications on the forward link and the reverse link may use a common frequency region, so that the reciprocity principle allows estimation of the forward link channel from reverse link channel.

[0006] The long-term evolution (LTE) layer 2 user plane protocol stack is generally made up of three sub-layers: the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer; the radio link control layer (RLC); and the medium access control (MAC) layer. Typically, the PDCP layer (currently the top of the Layer 2 protocol stack) processes Radio Resource Control (RRC) messages in the control plane and Internet Protocol (IP) packets in the plane. of the user. Depending on the radio carrier, the main functions of the PDCP layer are header compression, security, and support for reordering and retransmission during handover. The RLC layer in general provides for segmentation and / or reassembly of higher layer packets to fit a size that can actually be transmitted over the radio interface. For radio carriers that require error-free transmission, the RLC layer can also perform retransmission to recover from packet losses. In addition, the RLC layer performs reordering to compensate for out-of-order reception due to the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation at the MAC layer. The MAC layer (currently the bottom of the layer 2 protocol stack) multiplexes data from different radio carriers. By deciding the amount of data that can be transmitted from each radio carrier and instructing the RLC layer on the size of the packets to provide, the MAC layer aims to achieve the negotiated quality of service (QoS) for each radio carrier. For the uplink, this process may include informing the base station or eNodeB of the amount of data buffered for transmission.

[0007] On the transmission side, each layer can receive a service data unit (SDU) from a higher layer, for which the layer offers a service, and issues a protocol data unit (PDU) to the layer. down.

For example, the RLC layer can receive packets from the PDCP layer. These packets are generally called PDCP PDUs from a PDCP perspective and represent RLC SDUs from an RLC point of view. The RLC layer creates packets that are provided to the lower layer (for example, the MAC layer). The packets that the RLC provides to the MAC layer are RLC PDUs from an RLC perspective and MAC SDUs from a MAC point of view. On the receiving side, the process is reversed, with each layer passing the SDUs down the stack where they are received as PDUs.

[0008] An important feature of the LTE protocol stack design is that all PDUs and SDUs are byte aligned (eg, the lengths of the PDUs and SDUs are multiples of 8 bits). This is to facilitate handling by microprocessors, which are typically defined to handle packets in units of bytes. In order to further reduce the processing requirements of the LTE user plane protocol stack, the headers created by each of the PDCP, RLC and MAC layers are also byte aligned. This implies that unused padding bits are sometimes needed in the headers, and therefore the design cost for efficient processing is that a small amount of potentially available capacity is wasted.

[0009] The document "Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS; Radio link control (RLC) protocol specification (3GPP TS 25.322 version 7.7.0 Release 7). ETSI TS 125.322", publication date 08/01/2008, XP014042118, as well such as document WO00 / 21253 disclose background in the technical field.

BRIEF EXPLANATION

The invention is defined in the appended set of claims. The following is a brief simplified explanation of one or more embodiments in order to provide a basic understanding of those embodiments. This brief explanation is not an extensive overview of all contemplated embodiments and is not intended to identify key or critical elements of all embodiments or to delineate the scope of some or all embodiments. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more embodiments in a simplified way as a prelude to the more detailed description that follows.

[0011] The present application according to one or more aspects discloses a method that segments or concatenates radio link control (RLC) service data units (SDUs) into RLC protocol data units (PDUs). The procedure comprises the acts of receiving a first RLC SDU, dividing the first RLC SDU into a first RLC PDU and a second RLC PDU, in which the second RLC PDU is limited to 2047 bytes in size, establishing a length indicator field ( LI) associated with the second RLC PDU to indicate the size of the information contained in the second RLC PDU, concatenate the second RLC PDU with a third RLC PDU associated with a second RLC SDU to form a concatenated RLC PDU, and send the first PDU RLC, the concatenated RLC PDU, and a fourth RLC PDU associated with the second RLC SDU.

According to further aspects, the present application provides a wireless communication apparatus comprising a memory that holds instructions related to segmenting a first radio link control (RLC) service data unit (SDU) into a first RLC Protocol Data Unit (PDU) and a second RLC PDU, wherein the second RLC PDU is limited to 2047 bytes in size, set a Length Indicator (LI) field associated with the second RLC PDU to indicate the size of the information contained in the second RLC PDU, add the second RLC PDU with a third RLC PDU associated with a second RLC SDU to form a concatenated RLC PDU, and send the first RLC PDU, the concatenated RLC PDU, and a fourth RLC PDU associated with the second SDU RLC. In addition, the wireless communications apparatus may include a processor, coupled to memory, configured to execute instructions held in memory.

[0013] Furthermore, in accordance with other additional aspects, the present application provides a wireless communications apparatus that segments or concatenates Radio Link Control (RLC) Service Data Units (SDUs) into Protocol Data Units (PDUs ) RLC, wherein the wireless communication apparatus comprises means for receiving a first RLC SDU, means for dividing the first RLC SDU into a first RLC PDU and a second RLC PDU, wherein the second RLC PDU is limited to 2047 bytes in size, means for setting a length indicator (LI) field associated with the second RLC PDU to indicate the size of the information contained in the second RLC PDU, means for concatenating the second RLC PDU with a third RLC PDU associated with a second RLC SDU for forming a concatenated RLC PDU and means for sending the first RLC PDU, the concatenated RLC PDU and a fourth RLC PDU associated with the second RLC SDU.

[0014] In accordance with additional aspects, the present application discloses a computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium includes a code for receiving a first radio link control (RLC) service data unit (SDU), code for dividing the first RLC SDU into a first protocol data unit (PDU) RlC, and a second RLC PDU, in which the second RLC PDU is limited to 2047 bytes in size, code for setting a length indicator (LI) field associated with the second RLC PDU to indicate the size of the information contained in the la second RLC PDU, code to join the second RLC PDU with a third RLC PDU associated with a second RLC SDU to form a concatenated RLC PDU, and code to send the first RLC PDU, the concatenated RLC PDU, and a fourth RLC PDU associated with the second SDU RLC.

Furthermore, the present application discloses a wireless communications apparatus, comprising a processor configured to: receive a first radio link control (RLC) service data unit (SDU), split the first RLC SDU into a first RLC protocol data unit (PDU) and a second RLC PDU, wherein the second RLC PDU is limited to 2047 bytes in size, set a length indicator (LI) field associated with the second RLC PDU to indicate size from the information contained in the second RLC PDU, concatenate the second RLC PDU with a third RLC PDU associated with a second RLC SDU to form a concatenated RLC PDU, and send the first RLC PDU, the concatenated RLC PDU, and an associated fourth RLC PDU with the second SDU RLC.

In addition, the present application also discloses a method that segments or concatenates radio link control (RLC) service data units (SDUs) into RLC protocol data units (PDUs). The procedure comprises receiving a first RLC PDU, a concatenated PDU and a fourth RLC PDU, using a length indicator (LI) field associated with the concatenated PDU to establish a boundary between a second RLC PDU and a third RLC PDU, with the second RLC PDU and the third RLC PDU included in the concatenated PDU, and reassemble the first RLC PDU, the second RLC PDU, the third RLC PDU, and the fourth RLC PDU into a first RLC SDU and a second RLC SDU.

Furthermore, the present application discloses a wireless communications apparatus comprising a memory that holds instructions related to the acquisition of a first radio link control (RLC) protocol data unit (PDU), a concatenated PDU, and a fourth RLC PDU, using a length indicator (LI) field associated with the concatenated PDU to determine a demarcation between a second RLC PDU and a third RLC PDU, with the second RLC PDU and third RLC PDU included in the Concatenated PDUs, and the aggregation of the first RLC PDU and the second RLC PDU into a first RLC service data unit (SDU) and the third RLC PDU and the fourth RLC PDU into a second RLC SDU. In addition, the wireless communications apparatus also includes a processor, coupled to memory, configured to execute instructions held in memory.

Furthermore, the present application also discloses a wireless communications apparatus that segments or concatenates radio link control (RLC) service data units (SDUs) into RLC protocol data units (PDUs), wherein The wireless communication apparatus includes means for receiving a first RLC PDU, a concatenated PDU, and a fourth RLC PDU, means for using a length indicator (LI) field associated with the concatenated PDU to establish a boundary between a second RLC PDU and a third RLC PDU, with the second RLC PDU and third RLC PDU included in the concatenated PDU, and means for assembling the first RLC PDU, the second RLC PDU, the third RLC PDU, and the fourth RLC PDU into a first RLC SDU and a second SDU RLC.

[0019] According to additional aspects, the subject applications disclose a computer program product that includes a computer-readable medium, wherein the computer-readable medium comprises code for receiving a first control protocol data unit (PDU) link code (RLC), a concatenated PDU and a fourth RLC PDU, code to use a Length Indicator (LI) field associated with the concatenated PDU to establish a boundary between a second RLC PDU and a third RLC PDU, with the second RLC PDU and third RLC PDU included in concatenated PDU, and code to aggregate the first RLC PDU and second RLC PDU into a first RLC service data unit (SDU) and third RLC PDU, and fourth RLC PDU in a second RLC SDU.

According to other additional aspects, the present application discloses a wireless communication apparatus, comprising a processor configured to: receive a first radio link control (RLC) protocol data unit (PDU), a PDU concatenated, and a fourth RLC PDU, use a length indicator (LI) field associated with the concatenated PDU to determine a boundary between a second RLC PDU and a third RLC PDU, with the second RLC PDU and third RLC PDU included in the Concatenated PDU; and reassembling the first RLC PDU, the second RLC PDU, the third RLC PDU, and the fourth RLC PDU respectively into a first RLC service data unit (SDU) and a second RLC SDU.

[0021] For the fulfillment of the above and relative objectives, the one or more embodiments comprise the characteristics described in detail hereinafter and set forth particularly in the claims. The following description and accompanying drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative aspects of the one or more embodiments. However, these aspects indicate only a few of the various ways in which the principles of various embodiments can be used, and the described embodiments are intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022]

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a wireless communication system in accordance with various aspects discussed herein.

FIG. 2 provides an illustration of another wireless communication system configured to support multiple users, in which various disclosed embodiments and aspects can be implemented.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an exemplary system that performs and / or facilitates segmentation and / or concatenation of RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a scheme for splitting RLC SDUs that exceed the typical 2047-byte limitation that currently exists in 3GPP.

FIG. 5 shows an additional scheme for dividing RLC SDUs that exceed the 2047-byte limitation that currently exists in the 3GPP standard.

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative RLC PDU that may be used in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an example methodology for segmenting and / or concatenating RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs where the RLC SDUs have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of an example methodology for segmenting and / or concatenating RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs where RLC SDUs have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an example methodology for segmenting and / or concatenating RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs where the RLC SDUs have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of an example methodology for segmenting and / or concatenating RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs where the RLC SDUs have sizes that exceed 2047 bytes.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of an example access terminal that segments and / or concatenates the RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs where the RLC SDUs have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes.

FIG. 12 is an illustration of an example base station that segments and / or concatenates RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs where the RLC SDUs have sizes that exceed 2047 bytes.

FIG. 13 is an illustration of an example wireless network environment that can be used in conjunction with the various systems and procedures described herein.

FIG. 14 is an illustration of an example system that facilitates and / or performs segmentation and / or concatenation of RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs where the RLC SDUs have sizes in excess of 2047 bytes.

FIG. 15 is an illustration of a further example system that facilitates and / or performs segmentation and / or concatenation of RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs where the RLC SDUs have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0023] Various embodiments will now be described with reference to the drawings, in which like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements from start to finish. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth for purposes of explanation in order to provide a thorough understanding of one or more embodiments. However, it may be clear that said embodiment (s) can be carried out without these specific details. In other cases, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate the description of one or more embodiments.

[0024] As used in this application, the terms "component", "module", "system" and the like are intended to refer to an entity related to the computer, be it hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, software or running software. For example, a component can be, but is not limited to, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable module, a thread, 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 can be located on one computer and / or be distributed between two or more computers. Furthermore, these components can be run from various computer-readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components can communicate via local and / or remote processes, such as in accordance with a signal that presents one or more data packets ( for example, data from a component that interacts with another component in a local system, a distributed system and / or or over a network, such as the Internet, with other systems via the signal).

[0025] The techniques described herein can be used for various wireless communication systems, such as code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, digital multiple access systems. frequency division (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems and other systems. The terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably. A CDMA system can implement radio technology, such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), CDMA2000, etc. UTRA includes broadband CDMA (W-CDMA) and other variants of CDMA. The CDMA2000 covers the IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA system can implement a radio technology such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA system can 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, etc. . UTRA and E-UTRA are part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a new version of UMTS using E-UTRA, employing OFDMA on the downlink and SC-FDMA on the uplink.

The SC-FDMA uses single carrier modulation and equalization in the frequency domain. The SC-FDMA has similar performance and essentially the same overall complexity as an OFDMA system. An SC-FDMA signal has a lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), due to its intrinsic single-carrier structure. SC-FDMA can be used, for example, in uplink communications, where a lower PAPR greatly benefits the access terminals, in terms of transmission power efficiency. Consequently, SC-FDMA can be implemented as an uplink multiple access scheme in Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Evolved UTRA of 3GPP.

Furthermore, various embodiments in relation to an access terminal are described herein. An access terminal may also be called a system, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, user device or user equipment (EU). An access terminal can be a cell phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop station (WLL), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device capable of wireless connection, computing device, or other type of processing device connected to a wireless modem. Furthermore, various embodiments are described herein in relation to a base station. A base station can be used for communication with an access terminal or terminals and can also be called an access point, a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNodeB) or using some other terminology.

Furthermore, various aspects or features described herein may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard engineering and / or programming techniques. The term "article of manufacture", as used herein, is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or medium. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to, magnetic storage devices ( eg, a hard drive, floppy disk, magnetic tapes, etc.), optical discs ( eg, compact disc (CD ), a digital versatile disc (DVD), etc.), smart cards and flash memory devices (for example, EPROM, cards, USB storage drives, etc.). Additionally, various storage media described herein may represent one or more devices and / or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable media" can include, but is not limited to, wireless channels and various other media that can store, contain and / or carry one or more instructions and / or data.

[0029] Referring now to Fig. 1, a wireless communication system 100 is illustrated in accordance with various embodiments presented herein. System 100 comprises a base station 102 that can include multiple groups of antennas. For example, one group of antennas can include antennas 104 and 106, another group can include antennas 108 and 110, and a further group can include antennas 112 and 114. Two antennas are illustrated for each group of antennas; however, more or fewer antennas can be used for each group. Base station 102 may further include a chain of transmitters and a chain of receivers, each of which may in turn comprise a plurality of components associated with the transmission and reception of signals (e.g., processors, modulators, multiplexers, demodulators, demultiplexers, antennas, etc.), as will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art.

[0030] Base station 102 can communicate with one or more access terminals, such as access terminal 116 and access terminal 122; however, it will be appreciated that base station 102 can communicate with substantially any number of access terminals similar to access terminals 116 and 122. Access terminals 116 and 122 can be, for example, cell phones, smartphones, computers. laptops, portable communication devices, portable computing devices, satellite radios, global location systems, PDA and / or any other device suitable for communication by wireless communication system 100. As shown, access terminal 116 is in communication with antennas 112 and 114, where antennas 112 and 114 transmit information to access terminal 116 over a forward link 118 and receive information from access terminal 116 over a reverse link 120. In addition, access terminal 122 is in communication with antennas 104 and 106, where antennas 104 and 106 transmit information to access terminal 122 over a link direct ace 124 and receive information from access terminal 122 over a reverse link 126. In In a frequency division duplexing (FDD) system, the forward link 118 may use a different frequency band than that used by the reverse link 120, and the forward link 124 may use a different frequency band than the one used by the link. reverse 126, for example. Furthermore, in a time division duplexing (TDD) system, the forward link 118 and the reverse link 120 may use a common frequency band, and the forward link 124 and reverse link 126 may use a common frequency band.

Each group of antennas and / or the area in which they are designated to communicate may be referred to as a base station sector 102. For example, the groups of antennas can be designed to communicate with access terminals in a sector of the areas covered by base station 102. In communication over forward links 118 and 124, the transmitting antennas of base station 102 can use beamforming to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of forward links 118 and 124 for the terminals of Access 116 and 122. Furthermore, while base station 102 uses beamforming to transmit to randomly spread access terminals 116 and 122 through associated coverage, access terminals in neighboring cells can be subject to less interference compared to a base station that transmits through a single antenna to all its access terminals.

[0032] Fig. 2 illustrates a further wireless communication system 200 configured to support multiple users, in which various disclosed embodiments and aspects can be implemented. As depicted in Fig. 2, by way of example, system 200 provides communication for multiple cells 202, such as, for example, macro cells 202a-202g, each cell being served by a corresponding access point (AP) 204 (such as AP 204a-204g). Each cell can further be divided into one or more sectors. Several access terminals (AT) 206, including AT 206a-206k, also known interchangeably as user equipment (UE) or mobile stations, are dispersed throughout the system. Each AT 206 can communicate with one or more AP 204s on a forward link (FL) and / or a reverse link (RL) at any given time, depending on whether the AT is active and whether it is in rolling transfer, for example . Wireless communication system 200 can provide service across a wide geographic area, for example macrocells 202a-202g can cover several blocks of a neighborhood.

As a prelude to a more detailed discussion of the present application, those skilled in the art in this field of work will appreciate that a radio link control (RLC) layer receives as input blocks of data provided by the protocol layer. Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) (for example, the RLC layer receives RLC Service Data Units (SDU)). Therefore, to fill the payload portion of an RLC protocol data unit (PDU), the RLC uses two mechanisms known as segmentation and concatenation.

[0034] When an RLC SDU cannot be added to a given payload because the remaining size of the PDU is too short or too small for the purpose, then the SDU is segmented, and therefore transmits using two different or unequal PDUs . When, on the other hand, the size of the SDU is smaller than the PDU, the RLC layer will concatenate as many SDUs as possible to fill the payload.

[0035] It should also be noted without limitation or loss of generality that the facilities and / or functionalities disclosed can be used with equal applicability by both access terminals, mobile devices or user equipment, as well as base stations, access points, Node Bs, or evolved Node Bs (eNodeBs). Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the present disclosure includes aspects that can be employed both during the transmitting and receiving phase of wireless communications.

[0036] RLC is a protocol that provides the structure for higher-level packets. The structure is typically done by indicating, with a length indicator field (LI), the position of the last byte of an RLC SDU within an RLC PDU. Because the size of the LI field is currently specified as 11 bits, RLC can typically only indicate when the end of an RLC PDU occurs after less than 2048 bytes (for example, 211 bytes).

Currently, the maximum transport block size (TB) is 149,776 bits, or 18,722 bytes. To achieve a maximum bit rate, with the maximum SDU at 2047 (for example, 211-1) bytes, the number of PDCP SDUs to process per transmission time interval (TTI) is 10. With SDUs Up to 16 Kbyte PDCPs, typically only two SDUs are required per TTI, which can reduce PDCP header throughput by at least a factor of 5.

Turning now to Fig. 3 which illustrates a system 300 that performs and / or facilitates segmentation and / or concatenation of RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs, wherein the RLC SDUs have sizes greater than 2047 bytes. As shown, system 300 includes base station 302 and access terminal 304 which may be in continuous and / or operational or sporadic and / or intermittent communication with each other. Since the basic functionalities of the base station 302 and the access terminal 304, respectively, have been explained above in connection with Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, a further detailed description of such features has been omitted to avoid repetition. unnecessary and for reasons of brevity and conciseness. However, as shown, the access terminal 304 may include a segmentation and concatenation component 306 which, in accordance with one aspect, may obtain and / or acquire RLC SDUs and determine the total size of the acquired or obtained RLC SDU. Upon receiving the RLC SDU, the segmentation and concatenation component 306 may split or split the incoming RLC SDU into one or more RLC PDUs while it is ensured that the RLC PDU that includes the back end of any RLC SDU does not exceed 2047 bytes. The segmentation and concatenation component 306 may then send or transmit the RLC PDUs in an appropriate manner to a receiving device or receiving means.

The segmentation and concatenation component 306, according to additional aspects set forth in this disclosure, can receive RLC PDUs and upon receiving RLC PDUs it can track RLC PDUs that include the final stages of any RLC SDU ( for example, without the limitation or loss of generality, the segmentation and concatenation component 306 may take into account that RLC PDUs that do not exceed 2047 bytes are typically associated with the back end of the RLC SDU). The segmentation and concatenation component 306 can then reconstitute the RLC SDUs from the various received RLC PDUs, being aware that RLC PDUs that generally do not exceed 2047 bytes are typically associated with the culminating portion of the respective RLC SDUs.

According to additional aspects of the present disclosure, the segmentation and concatenation component 306 can acquire or obtain RLC SDUs and then can divide or segment the divided RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs while guaranteeing that the RLC PDUs associated with parts end of an RLC SDU does not exceed 2047 bytes. Based at least in part on the size (for example, payload size) of the RLC PDU, a Length Indicator (LI) field can be set (for example, by using an indicator bit included in the RLC PDU header) and use it to indicate the size of the RLC PDU associated with the closure portions of a particular RLC SDU. The segmentation and concatenation component 306 may subsequently, as appropriate, reassemble, join or concatenate the RLC PDUs and send all RLC PDUs (including concatenated RLC PDUs) to a receiving aspect. It should be noted, without limitation or loss of generality, that reassembled, joined, or concatenated RLC PDUs can far exceed the 2047-byte limitation established under current standards.

[0041] In accordance with still other aspects of the present disclosure, the segmentation and concatenation component 306 may receive the RLC PDUs (including the concatenated RLC PDUs), identify whether an LI indicator associated with the RLC PDU header has been set, and when the LI flag has been set, extract from the LI field (eg, the 11-bit field included or associated with the RLC PDU header) a length for the RLC PDU. Based at least in part on the received RLC PDU and the length indicated by the LI field, the segmentation and concatenation component 306 can determine where the boundary or boundary lies between the concatenated RLC PDUs. For example, if a total received and concatenated RLC PDU is 7000 bytes, and the LI field indicates 2000 bytes, the segmentation and concatenation component 306 can deduce that for the purposes of reconstituting the RLC SDU, the first 2000 bytes must be associated with a first or leading RLC SDU and the remaining 5000 bytes must be associated with a second or later RLC SDU. Therefore, when reconstructing the respective RLC SDUs from the received RLC PDUs, the Segmentation and Concatenation component 306 can slice or divide the concatenated RLC PDUs using the LI field as an indication of where the boundary is located or the boundary between the trailing part of an initial or first RLC SDU and the initial part of a subsequent or second RLC SDU. The segmentation and concatenation component 306 can subsequently aggregate or agglomerate the respective received RLC PDUs (and parts thereof) into the corresponding RLC SDUs.

[0042] Therefore, in order to facilitate the above, the segmentation and concatenation component 306 may include the partition component 308 which upon receipt of the SDU RLC can determine the total size of the SDU RLC and then divide the SDUs RLCs received in one or more RLC PDUs. The partition component 308 together with the facilities and / or functionalities provided by the limiting component 310 can also guarantee during the division, partition or segmentation of the RLC SDUs that the RLC PDUs that comprise or include the end or rear parts of an SDU RLC does not exceed 2047 bytes in size. In addition, partition component 308 may also employ facilities and functionality provided by length indicator component 312 to set or determine the LI field associated with the RLC PDU. The LI field (as well as the LI indicator) is typically included in the header of each RLC PDU. For example, when an RLC PDU length is to be specified, the length indicator component 312 can be used to set the LI field to the appropriate length of the resulting RLC PDU, as well as to set the LI flag (for example, 1 bit included in the header of the RLC PDU) to indicate that the LI field contains size information related to the payload of the RLC PDU. It should be noted that since the LI field is currently standardized as 11 bits in the RLC PDU header, the maximum size that can currently be indicated in the LI field is 211-1 (for example, 2047) bytes. Furthermore, in the context of the length indicator component 312, the length indicator component 312 may also adjust or modify the LI field to reflect the appropriate size value of the RLC PDU. Additionally, partition component 308 in combination with the facilities and / or functionalities provided by building component 314 can concatenate RLC PDUs to reduce the total number of RLC PDUs that are needed to send large RLC SDUs (e.g. RLC SDUs). exceeding 2047 bytes).

[0043] To do the above in a better context, consider the following example in which two RLC SDUs have to be transmitted, each comprising 10,000 bytes. The partition component 308 in collaboration with the limiting component 310 can function in the following manner. The partition component 308 in combination with the limiting component 310 upon receiving the RLC SDUs can split, divide or segment the first RLC SDU into two RLC PDUs, with the first RLC PDU including 8000 bytes of the first RLC SDU (e.g. , initial information or start information of the first RLC SDU) and the second RLC PDU including the remaining or final 2000 bytes of the first RLC SDU (eg, ending information or back information of the first RLC SDU). In addition, partition component 308, once again in association with limiting component 310, can split, segment, or split the second RLC SDU into two other RLC PDUs where the third RLC PDU can include 7953 bytes of the second SDU. RLC and the fourth RLC PDU may comprise 2047 bytes from the back end of the second RLC SDU (eg, the fourth RLC PDU subject to a 2047 byte limitation). As will be seen in the illustration above, partition component 308 in cooperation with limiting component 310 can determine the focus of the end parts of an RLC SDU, and based at least in part on identifying the end aspects of the SDU RLC limitation component 310 can ensure that partition component 308 does not exceed the current limitation of 2047 bytes when it comes to including RLC SDU end-end information in the associated RLC PDU. As will also be seen in the example above, the partition component 308 in concert with the limiting component 310 ensures that the culminating or trailing portions (eg, back information) of an RLC SDU included in an RLC PDU do not exceed the limiting 2047 bytes enforced by current 3GPP standards; however, as will be seen later, the parts leading to the end parts of the SDU RLC can be included in RLC PDUs of effectively unlimited size; all that is material in this case is that the RLC PDU containing or comprising the back end of an RLC PDU does not exceed the 2047-byte barrier.

[0044] According to a further aspect, and as an extension of the above example, the partition component 308, the limiting component 310, the length indicator component 312, and the building component 314 can be beneficially used as follows additional and / or alternative to also divide, split, section or segment the incoming RLC SDUs into the appropriate RLC PDUs. Again, for example, suppose that two RLC SDUs are to be transmitted, each comprising 10,000 bytes. The partition component 308 in concert with the limiting component 310 upon receiving the two RLC SDUs can divide, slice, segment or split the first RLC SDU into two RLC PDUs, wherein the first RLC PDU includes 8000 bytes of the first SDU RLC and the second RLC PDU includes the final 2000 bytes of the first RLC SDU. In addition, the partition component 308, once again with the help of the limiting component 310, can also split, segment, divide, or section the second RLC SDU into two RLC PDUs, in which one RLC PDU (for example, the third RLC PDU) includes 7953 bytes attributable to the second RLC SDU and the other RLC PDU (eg, the fourth RLC PDU) comprises 2047 bytes of the end portion of the second RLC PDU. It should be noted that the second RLC PDU is restricted or subject to the 2047 byte limitation and the fourth RLC PDU is also subject to the 2047 byte limitation. At this point, the control can switch to the length indicator component 312 which can set the LI indicator (for example, indicating whether the RLC PDU contains information in the LI field) and populate the LI field associated with the header of each RLC PDU with the byte count that matches the size of the RLC PDU. Once the length indicator component 312 has set the LI indicator and / or populated the LI fields associated with the RLC PDU header, the construction component 314 can be used to concatenate, aggregate, group, or join the appropriate RLC PDUs. , which in this case will be the second and third RLC PDUs comprising data emanating from the rear end of the first RLC SDU and the initial parts of the second RLC SDU, in a single monolithic RLC PDU. By facilitating this task, the build component 314 can remove or negate the LI information (for example, set the LI flag to indicate that the information in the LI field is meaningless or that the LI field is not being used to transmit size information) associated with each RLC PDU, except RLC PDUs that have been concatenated or joined (for example, the single monolithic RLC PDU), and even with these concatenated or joined RLC PDUs, building component 314 needs to ensure that the Unique LI information (e.g., LI indicator and / or LI field) associated with the previous RLC PDU (e.g., the second RLC PDU associated with the first RLC SDU) of the concatenated or joined set is contained in the header of the RLC PDU.

[0045] It should be noted in the context of the aggregation, agglomeration, joining or concatenation of the second and third RLC PDUs in the above illustration, that the aggregated, agglomerated, concatenated, or joined and resulting RLC PDU (for example, the only Monolithic joined RLC PDUs) contains a single header containing information about the length of the second RLC PDU (for example, the boundary or boundary between the second and third RLC PDUs and the respective RLC SDUs from which each of the second and third RLC PDUs). In addition, it should also be noted that the LI flags associated with unconcatenated or unjoined r Lc PDUs typically do not require their LI flags to be set or the associated LI field to be populated with the size of the RLC PDU, since The amount of information that is carried in these RLC PDUs will generally exceed the ability, for the purposes of this disclosure, of the LI field (for example, currently limited by the 3GPP specification to 11 bits) to convey information of relevant or pertinent size.

According to still another aspect, and as a further augmentation of the continued example, when the RLC PDU packets are received in a corresponding and / or communication receiving means, the segmentation and concatenation component 306 and, in particular partition component 308, limiting component 310, length indicator component 312, and construction component 314 can reconstitute or reassemble RLC PDUs into RLC SDUs in the following manner. Upon receiving the RLC PDUs, the partition component 308 in collaboration with the limiting component 310 and the length indicator component 312 can investigate the incoming RLC PDUs to determine the relative order in which the RLC PDUs should be reassembled and whether the PDUs RLCs received have or do not have their respective LI indicators established.

[0047] When the LI indicators associated with the received RLC PDUs do not have their associated set of LI indicators, the build component 314 can assemble the RLC SDUs in the following manner, looking through the facilities provided by the limiting component 310 that RLC PDUs that generally do not exceed a byte length of 2047 are typically attributable to the back end of RLC SDUs. Therefore, as a continuation of the example where the original RLC SDUs are 10,000 bytes, the partition component 308, the limiting component 310, the length indicator component 312, the construction component 314 can take into account that the first RLC PDU is 8000 bytes long, and as such, based at least in part on its size (e.g. significantly greater than 2047 bytes), it can be concluded that the first RLC PDU does not contain the trailing parts of the first SDU RLC to be rebuilt, but rather contains the initial parts of the first RLC SDU, and as such, build component 314 can take this into account when reassembling the first RLC SDU. With respect to the second RLC PDU, the partition component 308, the limiting component 310, the length indicator component 312, and the build component 314 may point out that this RLC PDU does not exceed the 2047-byte limitation and as such, it can be inferred, or at least assumed, that this second RLC PDU contains the back end of the first RLC SDU. Building component 314, based at least in part on the inference or assumption that since the second RLC PDU does not exceed 2047 bytes, it must contain the back end of the first RLC SDU, it may combine the first RLC PDU with the second RLC PDU to reassemble the first RLC SDU. As will be appreciated, a similar process can be employed with respect to the third and fourth RLC PDUs.

When, on the other hand, the LI flags of a select group of RLC PDUs have been set, the partition component 308, the limiting component 310, the length indicator component 312, and the construction component 314 may adopt the next course of action. Again, continuing with the previous example where each of the original RLC SDUs is 10,000 bytes, the partition component 308, the limiting component 310, the length indicator component 312, and the build component 314 can take into account that the first RLC PDU is 8000 bytes long and that the LI flag has not been set and the LI field associated with the header of the first RLC PDU is empty or, if it is not empty, the data contained in the LI field is not make sense, therefore, the build component 314 may note that the first received RLC PDU contains data attributable to the first RLC SDU. Also, partition component 308, constraint component 310, length indicator component 312, and construction component 314 can take into account that the LI flag has been set, the value contained in the LI field (2000 bytes) is significant (for example, less than or equal to 2047), and that the actual transmission size of the RLC PDU is significantly larger (for example, 9953 bytes) than the 2000 bytes indicated in the LI field. Based at least in part on this knowledge, partition component 308 may detach and allocate the first 2000 bytes of the received RLC PDU as belonging to the first RLC SDU, leaving the remaining 7953 bytes as attributable to the second RLC SDU. Regarding the last RLC PDU received in this instance, the partition component 308, the limiting component 310, the length indicator component 312, and the build component 314 can take into account that this RLC PDU is 2047 bytes long. and that the LI indicator has not been set; accordingly, the build component 314 may note that this RLC PDU contains data attributable to the second RLC SDU. At this stage, the build component 314 that has taken into account the various allocations of the respective RLC PDUs can reassemble the RLC PDUs into their respective RLC SDUs.

It should be noted without limitation or loss of generality that while the access terminal 304 has been described and depicted as including the segmentation and concatenation component 306 (and its associated components), it will be apparent to those with an understanding moderate of this field of work, that a counterpart segmentation and concatenation component may also be located or associated with the base station 302 to perform the same or similar functionalities and / or to achieve the same or similar results. Furthermore, it should be further noted, without limitation or loss of generality, that RLC SDUs can be of any size (eg, greater or less than 2047 bytes); however, for discussion purposes only and to provide context for the present disclosure, the RLC SDUs discussed herein typically exceed 2047 bytes.

[0050] Fig. 4 provides illustration 400 of a scheme for dividing RLC SDUs that exceed the typical 2047-byte limitation currently existing in 3GPP standards. As will be seen, two RLC SDUs are illustrated (eg, SDU RLC 1 and SDU RLC 2). SDU RLC 1 is 10,000 bytes and SDU RLC 2 is 7,000 bytes long. In accordance with this aspect of the disclosure, each of the RLC 1 and RLC 2 SDUs can be divided into two RLC PDUs each (e.g., RLC 1 PDU, RLC 2 PDU, RLC 3 PDU, and RLC 4 PDU) in the that only the RLC2 PDU and RLC 4 PDU are limited by the 2047-byte length restriction. The RLC PDU 1 and RLC PDU 3 can be unlimited in size and can significantly exceed the 2047-byte limitation currently imposed by the 3GPP standard.

[0051] Fig. 5 provides a description 500 of a further scheme for splitting RLC SDUs that exceed the 2047-byte limitation that currently exists in the 3GPP standard. In this case, the two RLC SDUs have been divided again into four (for example, RLC PDU 1, RLC PDU 2A, RLC PDU 2B and RLC PDU 3), but through the facilities and functionalities of the components explained above, Only three RLC PDUs need to be transmitted. Like the RLC PDUs shown in Fig. 4, RLC PDU 1 and RLC PDU 2B can be unlimited in size, but RLC PDU 2A and RLC PDU 3 are limited to less than 2048 bytes in length. Nevertheless, Unlike the situation presented in Fig. 4, where four different RLC PDUs are transmitted, as presented in Fig. 5, the second and third RLC PDUs (for example, the RLC PDU (RLC PDU 2A) comprising the rear end of the first RLC SDU (RLC SDU 1) and the third RLC PDU (RLC2B PDU) comprising the initial parts of the second RLC SDU (RLC SDU 2)) are concatenated to form a single RLC PDU (for example, a Concatenated RLC PDU). This concatenated RLC PDU may include an RLC PDU header having the LI flag set so as to notify the media receiving the RLC PDU that the included LI field contains pertinent size information related to the concatenated RLC PDU (e.g., the size information included in the LI field pertains to the RLC2A PDU size). It should be noted that under this conception, it is only necessary for the concatenated RLC PDU to contain a set LI flag and a properly filled LI field indicating the size of a constituent component (eg RLC 2A PDU) of the concatenated PDU. It should further be noted that by assuming the size of at least one of the constituent components of the concatenated PDU and the total size of the concatenated PDU, the concatenated PDU can be divided to provide components of the respective RLC SDUs.

[0052] Fig. 6 depicts an illustrative RLC 600 PDU that may be used in accordance with the present disclosure. As illustrated, the RLC PDU may comprise two parts, a payload part in which the information from the RLC SDUs can be located and a header part which may include a 1-bit LI indicator 602 and an 11-bit LI field. bits 604. The 1-bit LI flag may be used to indicate whether the 11-bit LI field 604 contains information of significant size regarding the payload part. For example, if the payload contains 2000 bytes of information, the 1-bit LI flag 602 can be set and the 11-bit LI field 604 can be updated or populated to reflect that the payload contains 2,000 bytes of information. As those relatively familiar with this field of work will appreciate, since the LI field 604 is 11 bits long, the maximum number that this field can indicate is 211-1 (eg, 2047). Consequently, and as discussed above, there may be times when the 1-bit LI flag 602 and the 11-bit LI field are not used.

[0053] With reference to Fig. 7, Fig. 8, Fig. 9 and Fig. 10, the methodologies related to the segmentation and / or concatenation of RLC SDUs in RLC PDUs are illustrated respectively, in which RLC SDUs typically have sizes exceeding 2,047 bytes. Although, in order to simplify the explanation, the methodologies are shown and described as a series of acts, it is to be understood and appreciated that the methodologies are not limited by the order of the acts, since certain acts may, according to with one or more embodiments, occur in different orders and / or concurrently with other acts with respect to what is shown and described in this document. For example, those skilled in the art will understand and appreciate that a methodology could alternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram. Furthermore, all illustrated acts may not be required to implement a methodology in accordance with one or more embodiments.

[0054] With reference to Fig. 7, an illustrative methodology 700 for segmentation and / or concatenation of RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs is presented, wherein RLC SDUs typically have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes. Procedure 700 can begin at 702, where an RLC SDU can be purchased and a size check of the RLC SDU can be performed. In 704, the RLC SDU can be divided into RLC PDUs in which during the division, the RLC PDUs associated with the back end or the trailing aspects of an RLC SDU are limited not to exceed a limit of 2047 bytes. At 706, RLC PDUs can be transmitted in which the RLC PDUs associated with the trailing ends of the RLC SDUs are monitored during transmission to ensure that they do not exceed a threshold of 2047 bytes.

[0055] With reference to Fig. 8, a further illustrative methodology 800 is presented for the segmentation and / or concatenation of RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs, where the RLC SDUs typically have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes. Procedure 800 can start at 802, where RLC PDUs can be received, so during reception it is taken into account that RLC PDUs that do not exceed 2047 must be associated with the back ends of the respective RLC SDUs. In 804, RLC PDUs can be reconstituted into RLC SDUs in which RLC PDUs that have been noted above as not exceeding 2047 bytes are considered to be the final parts of an RLC SDU, and RLC PDUs exceeding the limitation 2047 bytes are considered the initial parts of the RLC SDU.

With reference to FIG. 9, a further illustrative methodology 900 is presented for the segmentation and / or concatenation of SDU RLC into PDU RLC, wherein the SDU RLC typically have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes. Procedure 900 can begin at 902 where RLC SDUs are obtained or acquired. In 904, the RLC SDUs are divided into RLC PDUs in which during the division a special note is made regarding the end parts of an RLC SDU, so that the RLC PDU to be transmitted by the rear end of the RLC SDU does not exceed 2047 bytes. At 906, an LI field (and associated LI indicator) can be appropriately provisioned with the byte size of the RLC PDUs that contain the culminating parts of an RLC SDU. At 908, intermediate RLC PDUs can be concatenated in which the LI field (and the LI flag) of the RLC PDU containing the inconclusive part of an RLC SDU is cleared. In 910, all generated RLC PDUs can be sent, including concatenated intermediate RLC PDUs.

[0057] With reference to FIG. 10, an illustrative methodology 1000 for segmentation and / or concatenation of RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs is presented, wherein RLC SDUs typically have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes. Procedure 1000 can start at 1002 where RLC PDUs can be received, including concatenated or joined RLC PDUs. At 1004, the LI field associated with concatenated or joined RLC PDUs can be used to determine where the boundary or boundary lies between two RLC PDUs that have previously been joined or concatenated. At 1006, the RLC PDUs can be reconstituted or reassembled into the RLC SDUs.

[0058] It will be appreciated that, in accordance with one or more aspects described herein, inferences can be made regarding the segmentation and / or concatenation of RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs where the RLC SDU typically exceeds 2047 bytes. As used in this document, the term "infer" or "inference" refers, in general, to the process of reasoning about or to the inference states of the system, the environment and / or the user from a set of observations. as captured through events and / or data. Inference can be used to identify a specific context or action, or it can generate a probability distribution across states, for example. Inference can be probabilistic, that is, the computation of a probability distribution across states of interest based on a consideration of data and events. Inference can also refer to the techniques used to compose top-level events from a set of events and / or data. Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions from a set of observed events and / or stored event data, regardless of whether or not the events in close temporal proximity are correlated or whether the events and the data comes or does not come from one or more event and data sources.

[0059] FIG. 11 is an illustration 1100 of an access terminal 304 that segments and / or concatenates RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs, where RLC SDUs typically have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes. Access terminal 304 comprises a receiver 1102 that receives a signal from, eg, a receiving antenna (not shown), and performs typical actions ( eg, filters, amplifies, decreases in frequency, etc.) on the received signal. and digitizes the conditioned signal to obtain samples. Receiver 1102 can be, for example, an MMSE receiver and can comprise a demodulator 1104 that can demodulate received symbols and provide them to a processor 1106 for channel estimation. Processor 1106 can be a processor dedicated to analyzing the information received by receiver 1102 and / or generating information for transmission by a transmitter 1114, a processor that controls one or more components of access terminal 304 and / or a processor that both analyzes information received by receiver 1102, how it generates information for transmission by transmitter 1114, and controls one or more components of access terminal 304.

The access terminal 304 may further comprise a memory 1108 that is operatively coupled to the processor 1106 and that can store data to be transmitted, received data, and any other appropriate information relating to the performance of the various actions and functions. set forth in this document. For example, memory 1108 can store group-specific signaling restrictions employed by one or more base stations. Memory 1108 may additionally store protocols and / or algorithms associated with identifying signaling constraints used to communicate resource block allocations and / or employ such signaling constraints to analyze received allocation messages.

[0061] It should be appreciated that the data storage (eg, memory 1108) described herein may be volatile memory or non-volatile memory, or it may include both volatile memory and non-volatile memory. By way of illustration, and not limitation, non-volatile memory may include read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PRo M), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory can include random access memory (RAM), which acts as an external cache. By way of illustration and not limitation, RAM is available in many forms, such as Synchronous RAM (SRAM), Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), Sd Double Data Rate RAM (DDR SDRAM), Sd Enhanced RAM (ESDRAM), Synchronous Link DRAM (Sl DRAM), and Direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM). Subject systems and procedures memory 1108 is intended to comprise, but is not limited to, these and other suitable types of memory.

The receiver 1102 is further operatively coupled to a segmentation and concatenation component 1110 which may be substantially similar to the segmentation and concatenation component 306 of FIG. 3. The segmentation and concatenation component 1110 can be used to search and / or tracking neighboring cells for handover purposes or other applications, such as, location inference and / or cooperative transmission from base stations. The access terminal 304 still further comprises a modulator 1112 and a transmitter 1114 that transmits the signal to, for example, a base station, another access terminal, etc. Although processor 1106 has been shown separately, it will be appreciated that segmenting and concatenation component 1110 and / or modulator 1112 may be part of processor 1106 or multiple processors (not shown).

[0063] FIG. 12 is an illustration of a system 1200 that segments and / or concatenates RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs, in which RLC SDUs typically have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes. System 1200 comprises a base station 302 (eg, access point, ...) with a receiver 1208 that receives a signal or signals from one or more access terminals 304 through a plurality of receive antennas 1204, and a transmitter 1220 that transmits to the one or more access terminals 1202 through a transmitting antenna 1206. The receiver 1208 can receive information from receiving antennas 1204 and is operatively associated with a demodulator 1210 that demodulates the received information. The demodulated symbols are analyzed by a processor 1212 that may be similar to the processor described above with respect to Fig. 11, and that is coupled to a memory 1214 that stores data to be transmitted to, or received from, the access terminal or terminals. 1202 (or a different base station (not shown)), and / or any other suitable information related to the execution of the various actions and functions set forth herein. Processor 1212 is further coupled to a segmentation and concatenation component 1216 that facilitates circuit-switched voice transmission over packet-switched networks. In addition, the segmentation and concatenation component 1216 can provide information to be transmitted to a modulator 1218. The modulator 1218 can multiplex a frame for transmission by a transmitter 1220 through antennas 1206 to access terminal (s) 1202. Although they have been Illustrated separately from processor 1212, it should be appreciated that segmenting and concatenation component 1216 and / or modulator 1218 may be part of processor 1212 or multiple processors (not shown).

[0064] Fig. 13 shows an example wireless communication system 1300. The wireless communication system 1300 represents a base station 1310 and an access terminal 1350, for the sake of brevity. However, it is to be appreciated that the system 1300 may include more than one base station and / or more than one access terminal, wherein the additional base stations and / or access terminals may be essentially similar or different from the station. base 1310 and the example access terminal 1350 described below. Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the base station 1310 and / or the access terminal 1350 may employ the systems (Figs. 3, 11 12, and 14-15) and / or the procedures (Figs. 7-10) described herein. document to facilitate wireless communication between them.

At base station 1310, traffic data for a plurality of data streams is provided from a data source 1312 to a transmission data processor (TX) 1314. According to one example, each data stream it can be transmitted through a respective antenna. The TX data processor 1314 formats, encodes, and interleaves the traffic data stream based on a particular encoding scheme selected for that data stream to provide encoded data.

[0066] The encoded data for each data stream can be multiplexed with pilot data using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) techniques. Additionally, or alternatively, the pilot symbols may be frequency division multiplexed (FDM), time division multiplexed (TDM), or code division multiplexed (CDM). Pilot data is typically a known data pattern that is processed in a known manner and can be used at access terminal 1350 to estimate channel response. The multiplexed pilot and encoded data for each data stream can be modulated (e.g. symbols assigned) based on a particular modulation scheme (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) ), M-ary phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM), etc.) selected for that data stream to provide modulation symbols. The data transfer rate, encoding, and modulation of each data stream can be determined by instructions made or provided by a 1330 processor.

The modulation symbols for the data streams can be provided to a MIMO processor TX 1320, which can further process the modulation symbols (eg for OFDM). The TX MIMO processor 1320 then provides N ^t modulation symbol streams to N ^t transmitters (TMTR) 1322a through 1322t. In various embodiments, the TX MIMO processor 1320 applies beamforming weights to the symbols in the data streams and to the antenna from which the symbol is being transmitted.

Each transmitter 1322 receives and processes a respective symbol stream to provide one or more analog signals and further conditions the analog signals (eg, amplifies, filters, and raises their frequency) to provide a modulated signal suitable for transmission to through the MIMO channel. Furthermore, N ^t modulated signals are transmitted from transmitters 1322a to 1322t from N ^t antennas 1324a to 1324t, respectively.

At the access terminal 1350, the transmitted modulated signals are received by N ^r antennas 1352a to 1352r and the received signal from each antenna 1352 is provided to a respective receiver (RCVR) 1354a to 1354r. Each receiver 1354 conditions (eg, filters, amplifies, and downgrades) a respective signal, digitizes the conditioned signal to provide samples, and further processes the samples to provide a corresponding stream of "received" symbols.

[0070] An RX data processor 1360 may receive and process the N ^r symbol streams received from N ^r receivers 1354 based on a particular receiver processing technique to provide N ^t "detected" symbol streams. The RX 1360 data processor can demodulate, de-interleave, and decode each detected symbol stream to recover the traffic data for the data stream. Processing by the RX 1360 data processor is complementary to that performed by the TX 1320 MIMO processor and the TX 1314 data processor in the base station 1310.

[0071] A processor 1370 can periodically determine which available technology to use, as discussed above. In addition, the processor 1370 can formulate a reverse link message that comprises an array index part and a range value part.

The reverse link message may comprise various types of information regarding the communication link and / or the received data stream. The reverse link message can be processed by a TX data processor 1338, which also receives traffic data for various data streams from a data source 1336, modulated by a modulator 1380, conditioned by transmitters 1354a to 1354r, and transmitted accordingly. back to base station 1310.

At base station 1310, modulated signals from access terminal 1350 are received by antennas 1324, conditioned by receivers 1322, demodulated by demodulator 1340, and processed by RX data processor 1342 to extract the data. reverse link message transmitted by access terminal 1350. Additionally, processor 1330 can process the extracted message to determine which precoding matrix to use to determine beamforming weights.

Processors 1330 and 1370 can direct (eg, control, coordinate, manage, etc.) the operation of base station 1310 and access terminal 1350, respectively. The respective processors 1330 and 1370 can be associated with memories 1332 and 1372 that store program codes and data. Processors 1330 and 1370 can also perform calculations to obtain frequency response and impulse estimates for the uplink and downlink, respectively.

[0075] In one aspect, logical channels are classified into control channels and traffic channels. The logical control channels may include a broadcast control channel (BCCH), which is a downlink channel for broadcasting system control information. In addition, the logical control channels may include a paging control channel (PCCH), which is a downlink channel that transmits paging information. In addition, the logical control channels may comprise a multicast control channel (MCCH), which is a point-to-multi-point downlink channel, used for the transmission of broadcast and multi-service planning and control information. - multimedia broadcasting (MBMS) for one or more MTCHs. in general, after establishing a radio resource control connection (RRC), this channel is used only by the UEs receiving the MBMS (eg the old MCCH + MSCH). Additionally, the logical control channels can include a dedicated control channel (DCCH), which is a point-to-point bi-directional channel that transmits dedicated control information and that can be used by UEs that have an RRC connection. In one aspect, the logical traffic channels may comprise a dedicated traffic channel (DTCH), which is a point-to-point bi-directional channel dedicated to a UE for the transfer of user information. In addition, the logical traffic channels may include a multicast traffic channel (MTCH) for the point-to-multi-point downlink channel, to transmit traffic data.

[0076] In one aspect, transport channels are classified into DL and UL. Downlink transport channels comprise a broadcast channel (BCH), a downlink shared data channel (DL-SDCH), and a paging channel (PCH). The PCH can support UE power saving (for example, the network can indicate to the UE a discontinuous reception cycle (DRX), ...) by broadcasting it over a complete cell and correlating it with physical layer resources ( PHY) that can be used by other control / traffic channels. UL transport channels may comprise a random access channel (RACH), a request channel (REQCH), an uplink shared data channel (UL-SDCH), and a plurality of PHY channels.

[0077] PHY channels can include a set of DL channels and UL channels. For example, downlink PHY channels may include: Common Pilot Channel (CPICH); Synchronization Channel (SCH); Common Control Channel (CCCH); Downlink Control Shared Channel (SDCCH); Multicast Control Channel (MCCH); Shared Channel Uplink Assignment (SUACH); Confirmation channel (ACKCH); Downlink Data Shared Physical Channel (DL-PSDCH); Uplink Power Control Channel (UPCCH); Search Indicator Channel (PICH); and / or Load Indicator Channel (LICH). By way of further illustration, the uplink PHY channels may include: Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH); Channel Channel Quality Indicator (CQICH); Confirmation Channel (ACKCH); Antenna Subset Indicator Channel (ASICH); Shared Request Channel (SREQCH); Uplink Shared Physical Data Channel (UL-PSDCH); and / or Broadband Pilot Channel (BPICH).

[0078] It should be understood that the embodiments described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or any combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the processing units can be implemented within one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSP), digital signal processing devices (DSPD), programmable logic devices (PLD ), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof.

[0079] When the embodiments are implemented in software, firmware, middleware or microcode, program code or code segments, they can be stored on a machine-readable medium, such as a storage component. A code segment can represent a procedure, function, subroutine, program, routine, subroutine, module, software package, class, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program instructions. A code segment can be coupled to another code segment or to a hardware circuit by passing and / or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. can be passed, forwarded or transmitted using any suitable means including memory sharing, message transfer, token transfer, network transmission, etc. .

[0080] For a software implementation, the techniques described herein can be implemented with modules (eg, procedures, functions, etc.) that carry out the functions described herein. Software codes can be stored in memory units and executed by processors. The memory unit may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor, in which case it may be communicatively coupled to the processor by various means, as known in the art.

[0081] Returning to Fig. 14, a system 1400 is illustrated that segments and / or concatenates RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs where RLC SDUs typically have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes. System 1400 can reside in an access terminal, or a base station, for example. As depicted, the system 1400 includes functional blocks that may represent functions implemented by a processor, software, or a combination thereof (eg, firmware). System 1400 includes a logical grouping 1402 of electrical components that can act together. The logical grouping 1402 may include an electrical component for obtaining the radio link control (RLC) service data units (SDUs) 1404. In addition, the logical grouping 1402 may include an electrical component for dividing the RLC SDUs into RLC PDU, which ensures that the last RLC PDU associated with each RLC SDU does not exceed 2047 bytes 1406. Additionally, logical grouping 1402 may include an electrical component.

with each of the RLC SDUs to indicate the size of each of the last RLC PDUs. 1408. In addition, logical grouping 1402 may include an electrical component for concatenating intermediate RLC PDUs 1410. In addition, logical grouping 1402 may include an electrical component for sending RLC PDUs that include concatenated intermediate RLC PDUs 1412. In addition, system 1400 may include memory 1414 that stores instructions to perform functions associated with electrical components 1404, 1406, 1408, 1410, and 1412. Although shown as external to memory 1414, it is to be understood that electrical components 1404, 1406, 1408, 1410 and 1412 may exist within memory 1414.

Referring to Fig. 15, a system 1500 is illustrated that segments and / or concatenates RLC SDUs into RLC PDUs, wherein RLC SDUs typically have sizes exceeding 2047 bytes. System 1500 can reside in an access terminal or base station, for example. As depicted, the system 1500 includes functional blocks that may represent functions implemented by a processor, software, or a combination thereof (eg, firmware). System 1500 includes a logical grouping 1502 of electrical components that can act together. Logical group 1502 may include an electrical component for receiving radio link control protocol data units (PDUs) (RLC) including concatenated RLC PDUs 1504. In addition, logical grouping 1502 may include an electrical component to utilize the power indicator. length (LI) associated with the concatenated RLC PDUs to determine where the boundary lies between the concatenated RLC PDUs 1506. Additionally, the logical grouping 1502 may include an electrical component to reconstruct the RLC PDUs into RLC SDU 1508. Additionally, the system 1500 it may include memory 1510 that holds instructions to perform functions associated with electrical components 1504, 1506, and 1508. Although shown outside of memory 1510, it should be understood that electrical components 1504, 1506, and 1508 can be found within memory 1510.

[0083] What has been described above includes examples of one or more embodiments. Of course, it is not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for the purpose of describing the aforementioned embodiments, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many other combinations and permutations of various embodiments are possible. Accordingly, the described embodiments are intended to encompass all such alterations, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term "includes" is used in the detailed description or claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a similar way to the term "comprising", as interpreted as "comprising" when used as a transition word in a claim.

Claims (14)

1. A procedure (900) that segments or concatenates service data units, SDU, radio link control, RLC, into protocol data units, PDU, RLC, the procedure being executed by a wireless communications apparatus and that understands: receiving (902) a first RLC SDU and a second RLC SDU; dividing (904) the information from the first RLC SDU into a first payload part and a second payload part, and the information from the second RLC SDU into a third payload part and a fourth payload part, wherein the second payload part and the fourth payload part are limited to a maximum size, where the maximum size corresponds to a size of a length indicator field, LI; forming a first RLC PDU using the first payload part; forming a second RLC PDU using a concatenated payload part, wherein the concatenated payload part is obtained by concatenating (908) the second payload part and the third payload part; setting (906) the LI field comprised in a header of the second RLC PDU to indicate the size of the information contained in the second payload part; forming a third RLC PDU using the fourth payload; Y dispatch (910) the first RLC PDU, the second RLC PDU and the third RLC PDU, wherein the first payload part of the first RLC PDU and the third payload part of the second RLC PDU are not limited by the maximum size. The method according to claim 1 further comprises setting an LI indicator associated with the second payload part. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first payload portion associated with the first RLC SDU is larger than the maximum size and includes initial information from the first RLC SDU. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second payload portion associated with the first RLC SDU includes back information from the first RLC SDU. The method of claim 1, wherein the third payload portion associated with the second RLC SDU is larger than the maximum size and includes start information of the second RLC SDU. The method according to claim 1, wherein the quarter payload associated with the second RLC SDU is limited to the maximum size. 7. A wireless communications apparatus adapted to segment or concatenate service data units, SDU, radio link control, RLC, into protocol data units, PDU, RLC, comprising: means for receiving a first RLC SDU and a second RLC SDU; means for dividing the information from the first RLC SDU into a first payload part and a second payload part, and the information from the second RLC SDU into a third payload part and a fourth payload part, wherein the second payload part and the fourth payload part are limited to a maximum size, where the maximum size corresponds to a size of a length indicator field, LI; means for forming a first RLC PDU using the first payload part; means for forming a second RLC PDU using a concatenated payload portion, wherein the concatenated payload part is obtained by concatenating (908) the second payload part and the third payload part; means for setting the LI field comprised in a header of the second RLC PDU to indicate the size of the information contained in the second payload part; forming a third RLC PDU using the fourth payload; Y means for sending the first RLC PDU, the second RLC PDU and the third RLC PDU, wherein the first payload part of the first RLC PDU and the third payload part of the second RLC PDU are not limited by size maximum. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the maximum size is 2047 bytes. 9. A procedure (1000) that segments or concatenates protocol data units, PDU, radio link control, RLC, into service data units, SDU, RLC, with the procedure that is executed by a communications apparatus wireless and comprising: receiving (1002) a first RLC PDU comprising a first payload part, a second RLC PDU comprising a second and a third payload part, and a third RLC PDU comprising a fourth payload part; using (1004) a length indicator field, LI, comprised in a header of the second RLC PDU to determine a boundary between the second payload portion and the third payload portion comprised in the second RLC PDU; Y reassembling (1006) the first payload part and the second payload part in information from a first RLC SDU, and the third payload part and the fourth payload part in information from a second RLC SDU; wherein the second payload part and the fourth payload part are limited to a maximum size, wherein the maximum size of the second payload part corresponds to a size of the LI field; and wherein the first payload part of the first RLC PDU and the third payload part of the second RLC PDU are not limited by the maximum size. The method according to claim 9, wherein the maximum size is 2047 bytes. 11. A wireless communications device, comprising: a memory that holds instructions for performing the steps according to any of claims 1-6 and the steps according to any of the claims 9-10; Y a processor, coupled to memory, configured to execute instructions held in memory. 12. A computer program product, comprising: a computer-readable medium, comprising: code that when executed in an electronic device of a wireless communication apparatus results in the execution of the steps according to any of claims 1-6 or 9, 10. 13. A wireless communications apparatus adapted to segment or concatenate radio link control protocol data units, PDUs, into service data units, SDUs, RLCs, comprising: means for receiving a first RLC PDU comprising a first payload part, a second RLC PDU comprising a second and a third payload part, and a third RLC PDU comprising a fourth payload part; means for using a length indicator field, LI, comprised in a header of the second RLC PDU to determine a boundary between the second payload portion and the third payload portion comprised in the second RLC PDU; Y means for reassembling the first payload part and the second information payload part of a first RLC SDU, and the third payload part and the information fourth payload part of a second RLC SDU; wherein the second payload part and the fourth payload part are limited to a maximum size, wherein the maximum size of the second payload part corresponds to a size of the LI field; Y wherein the first payload part of the first RLC PDU and the third payload part of the second RLC PDU are not limited by the maximum size. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the maximum size is 2047 bytes.