KR20130116884A - Communicating between user equipment(ue) and independent serving sectors in a wireless communications system - Google Patents

Abstract

The wireless communication system transmits to High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) by having a Radio Network Controller (RNC) allocate portions of data for transmission to user equipment to the first serving cell and the second serving cell. The first serving cell sends data to the user equipment on the first downlink carrier. The second serving cell, independent from the first serving cell, transmits data to the user equipment on the second downlink carrier. In an optional aspect, the RNC receives a measurement report from the user equipment on the first uplink carrier via at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell.

Description

COMMUNICATING BETWEEN USER EQUIPMENT (UE) AND INDEPENDENT SERVING SECTORS IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM}

This patent application is filed on October 13, 2010, and is assigned to the assignee of the present patent application under the name "COMMUNICATING BETWEEN A USER EQUIPMENT (UE) AND A PLURALITY OF INDEPENDENT SERVING SECTORS IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM." 61 / 392,915 claims priority, whereby the provisional application is expressly incorporated herein by reference.

The present application relates to communication between a user equipment (UE) and a plurality of independent serving sectors in a wireless communication system.

Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and the like. Such networks, typically multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). UTRAN is a Radio Access Network (RAN) defined as part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). UMTS, the successor to the Universal System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA), time division-code division multiple access (TD-CDMA), and time division-synchronous code division multiple access (TD- It supports various air interface standards such as SCDMA. UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communication protocols such as High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), which provides higher data transfer rates and capacity for associated UMTS networks.

In the design of such communication systems, it is desirable to maximize the number or capacity of users that the system can reliably support in given available resources.

The following description provides a simplified summary of one or more aspects in order to provide a basic understanding of one or more aspects. This summary is not an exhaustive overview of all aspects considered and is not intended to identify key or critical elements of all aspects or to delineate any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

In one aspect, the present invention provides a method for receiving data with High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) from two independent cells or sectors. The user equipment (UE) receives data on the first downlink carrier from the first serving cell. The UE receives data on a second downlink carrier from a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell. In an exemplary aspect, the UE sends channel feedback on at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell on the first uplink carrier.

In another aspect, there is provided at least one processor for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. The first module receives data on the first downlink carrier from the first serving cell. The second module receives data on a second downlink carrier from a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell. In an exemplary aspect, the third module sends channel feedback on at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell on the first uplink carrier.

In an additional aspect, the present invention provides a computer program product for receiving data into HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. Non-transitory computer-readable storage medium includes stored sets of code. The first set of codes causes the computer to receive, at the user equipment, data from the first serving cell onto the first downlink carrier. The second set of codes causes the computer to receive, at the user equipment, data on a second downlink carrier from a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell. In an exemplary aspect, the third set of codes causes the computer to send, by the user equipment, channel feedback onto the first uplink carrier to at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell.

In a further aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. The apparatus comprises means for receiving, on user equipment, data on a first downlink carrier from a first serving cell. The apparatus includes, at user equipment, means for receiving data on a second downlink carrier from a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell. In an exemplary aspect, the apparatus includes means for transmitting, by the user equipment, channel feedback on the first uplink carrier to at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell.

In another aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. The first receiver, at the user equipment, receives data on the first downlink carrier from the first serving cell. The second receiver, at the user equipment, receives data on a second downlink carrier from a second serving cell that is independent of the first serving cell. In an exemplary aspect, the first transmitter sends, by the user equipment, channel feedback on the first uplink carrier to at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell.

In yet a further aspect, the present invention provides a method for transferring data from two independent cells or sectors to HSDPA. The Radio Access Network (RAN) assigns, by a Radio Network Controller (RNC), portions of data for transmission to user equipment to the first serving cell and the second serving cell. The RAN sends, by the first serving cell, data to the user equipment on the first downlink carrier. The RAN sends data to the user equipment on the second downlink carrier by a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell. In an optional aspect, the RAN receives, by the RNC, channel feedback from the user equipment on the first uplink carrier via at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell.

In another aspect, the present invention provides at least one processor for transferring data from two independent cells or sectors to an HSDPA. The first module assigns, by the RNC, portions of data for transmission to the user equipment to the first serving cell and the second serving cell. The second module sends, by the first serving cell, data to the user equipment on the first downlink carrier. The third module transmits data to the user equipment on the second downlink carrier by a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell. In an optional aspect, the fourth module receives channel feedback from the user equipment on the first uplink carrier via at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell.

In an additional aspect, the present invention provides a computer program product for transferring data from two independent cells or sectors to an HSDPA. Non-transitory computer-readable storage medium includes stored sets of code. The first set of codes causes the computer to assign, by the RNC, portions of data for transmission to the user equipment to the first serving cell and the second serving cell. The second set of codes causes the computer to send data to the user equipment on the first downlink carrier by the first serving cell. The third set of codes causes the computer to send data to the user equipment on the second downlink carrier by a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell. Optionally, the fourth set of codes causes the computer to receive channel feedback from the user equipment on the first uplink carrier via at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell.

In a further aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus for transmitting data from two independent cells or sectors to an HSDPA. The apparatus comprises means for assigning, by the RNC, portions of data for transmission to the user equipment to the first serving cell and the second serving cell. The apparatus includes means for transmitting, by the first serving cell, data to the user equipment on the first downlink carrier. The apparatus comprises means for transmitting data to a user equipment on a second downlink carrier by a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell. In an optional aspect, the apparatus includes means for receiving channel feedback from the user equipment on the first uplink carrier via at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell.

In another aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus for transmitting data from two independent cells or sectors to an HSDPA. The RNC allocates portions of data for transmission to the user equipment to the first serving cell and the second serving cell. The first serving cell sends data to the user equipment on the first downlink carrier. The second serving cell, independent from the first serving cell, transmits data to the user equipment on the second downlink carrier. In an optional aspect, the RNC receives channel feedback from the user equipment on the first uplink carrier via at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or more aspects comprise the features hereinafter described in detail and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative aspects of the one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspects may be employed, and this description is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents.

The features, characteristics, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the 'details for carrying out the invention' set forth below when the same reference numerals are taken in connection with the drawings to identify corresponding ones throughout.

1 is a timing diagram of an aspect of a user device and a network device in a wireless communication system.
2A is a flowchart of an aspect of a method for communication using data received from independent serving cells, performed by a user device.
2B is a flow diagram of an aspect of a method for communication using data transmitted from independent serving cells, performed by a network device.
3 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of an aspect of a telecommunication system.
4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of an aspect of an access network.
5 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of an aspect of a NodeB in communication with a UE in a telecommunications system;
6 illustrates an example of an aspect of a hardware implementation for an apparatus using a processing system.
FIG. 7 illustrates an aspect of a method of transmitting data to a legacy UE on multiple carriers within a single sector. FIG.
Figure 8 illustrates one aspect of connections established between a user equipment (UE) and a serving sector as determined during the method of Figure 7;
9A illustrates a method of transmitting data to a UE over a plurality of serving sectors in accordance with an aspect of the innovation of the present invention.
9B illustrates a method of transmitting data to a UE over multiple serving sectors in accordance with another aspect of the innovation of the present invention.
10A-10G each illustrate a block diagram of an aspect of connections established between a given UE and a plurality of serving sectors, according to the methods of FIGS. 9A and 9B.
FIG. 11A is a block diagram of an aspect of a system of logical groups of electrical components for communication using dual uplink transmission time intervals performed by a user device. FIG.
11B is a block diagram of an aspect of a system of logical groups of electrical components for communication using dual uplink transmission time intervals performed by a network device.

The user equipment UE sets up a first serving sector and a second serving sector at the same time. The first serving sector is configured to transmit to the UE on at least one downlink carrier from the first set of carriers, and the second serving sector is sent to the UE on at least one downlink carrier of the second set of carriers. Configured to transmit. One uplink carrier is assigned to the UE, and the UE can send feedback to the first and second serving sectors by one uplink carrier, the uplink carrier being between the first and second sets of carriers. Included. The UE receives data transmissions from the first and second serving sectors on their respective downlink carriers. The UE measures pilot signals of local sectors and provides channel feedback on the uplink carrier. The access network maintains an active set for the UE based on the measurement report.

The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of various aspects of the invention and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the above concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well known structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring such concepts.

Referring to FIG. 1, in a wireless communication system 100, a network device, shown as a radio access network (RAN) 102, onto a plurality of carriers with a user device, shown as a user equipment (UE) 114. An independent serving cell transmission controller 101 that manages independent serving cells transmitting. In one aspect, the RAN 102 is shown as the first serving cell 106 provided by the first base node 108 and the second serving cell 110 provided by the second base node 112. Data 104 is transmitted to UE 114 from H independent PAs in High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). In one aspect, the scheduler shown as the Radio Network Controller (RNC) 116 of the RAN 102 executes an independent serving cell transmission controller 101 and, consequently, data 104 for transmission to the UE 114. Allocate portions of the first serving cell 106 and the second serving cell 110. In particular, the first serving cell 106 transmits data 104 to the UE 114 on the first downlink carrier 118. The second serving cell 110, independent from the first serving cell 106, transmits data 104 to the UE 114 on the second downlink carrier 120. The RNC 116 and / or the independent serving cell transmission controller 101 may transmit the UE 114 onto the first uplink carrier 124 via at least one of the first serving cell 106 and the second serving cell 110. Channel feedback 122 from < RTI ID = 0.0 > The first and second base nodes may each include a transmitter 126 and a receiver 128 using at least one antenna 130 for transmission and reception.

Similarly, an independent cell reception controller 103 for managing independent serving cells receiving on multiple carriers at the UE 114 may, in one aspect, allow the UE 114 to have two independent cells or sectors. And to enable receiving data from the HSDPA. The first receiver 132 receives the data 104 from the first serving cell 106 onto the first downlink carrier 118. The second receiver 134 receives data 104 on the second downlink carrier 120 from the second serving cell 110 independent from the first serving cell 106. The first transmitter 136 transmits channel feedback 122 to at least one of the first serving cell 106 and the second serving cell 110 on the first uplink carrier 124.

In an exemplary aspect, the UE 114 has a second transmitter 138 for transmitting the second uplink carrier 140, which may be an anchor carrier. The first and second receivers 132, 134 and the first and second transmitters 136, 138 use one or more antennas 142.

The carrier may look like an anchor carrier in that the anchor carrier carries control channels for non-anchor carriers. Alternatively or additionally, the measurements of the anchor carrier can be the basis for determining mobility. Alternatively or additionally, a single uplink also means that a single active set is supported by the UE (and network) only on the anchor carrier.

In current multi-carrier HSPA, W-CDMA Rel. At 8, 9 and 10, all downlink carriers have the same serving cell. While such an implementation simplifies certain operations on Medium Access Control (MAC) and Radio Link Control (RLC) layers, this also limits the UE data rate in many situations. The innovation of the present invention enables a wireless communication system of more than one independent sector or cell, wherein the serving cell of each carrier can be selected independently. Channel feedback on one or more uplink carriers from the UE is addressed. In particular, carriers may be grouped into carrier groups. Each carrier group has one uplink carrier and thus one active set. The serving cell for each downlink carrier may be selected from among the member cells in the active set for that carrier group. Mobility can be based on anchor carriers or can be independent from carrier group to carrier. The HS-DPCCH may be coded into one code word and transmitted on an anchor uplink carrier or on an uplink carrier coded per carrier group and linked to that carrier group.

Thus, in one aspect, the first serving cell and the second serving cell are from the active set based on the measurement report 143, for example by the RNC 116 executing the independent serving cell transmission controller 101. Can be selected.

In another aspect, the first serving cell 106 transmits a first High Speed Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH) for the first downlink carrier 118. The second serving cell 110 transmits a second HS-SCCH for the second downlink carrier 120. In an aspect, in response to the operation of the independent serving cell reception controller 103, the encoder 144 at the UE 114 may generate an HS-DPCCH (based at least in part on the first HS-SCCH and the second HS-SCCH). Channel feedback 122 including High Speed Downlink Physical Control Channel) information is encoded into one code word on the first uplink carrier 124. One code word may be decoded by the decoder 146 at the RAN 102.

As mentioned above, in FIG. 2A, a method 200, such as that performed by the user equipment 114 of FIG. 1, receives data with High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) from two independent cells or sectors. It is for. The user equipment receives data from the first serving cell on the first downlink carrier (block 202). The user equipment receives data from a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell on a second downlink carrier (block 204). In an optional aspect, the user equipment sends channel feedback on at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell on the first uplink carrier (block 206).

In an exemplary aspect, the first serving cell and the second serving cell are selected by a Radio Network Controller (RNC) from an active set based on the measurement report.

In another exemplary aspect, the method includes monitoring a first High Speed Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH) transmitted by a first serving cell for a first downlink carrier; And monitoring the second HS-SCCH transmitted by the second serving cell for the second downlink carrier. The user equipment encodes channel feedback including High Speed Downlink Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH) information based at least in part on the first HS-SCCH and the second HS-SCCH into one code word on the first uplink carrier. . In a particular aspect, the user equipment transmits data onto a second uplink carrier to at least one of a first serving cell and a second serving cell, wherein the first uplink carrier comprises an anchor carrier.

In an additional illustrative aspect, the user equipment receives a first assignment of the first downlink carrier and the first uplink carrier for the first carrier group, and the second downlink carrier and the second uplink for the second carrier group. Receive a second assignment of the link carrier. The user equipment sends channel feedback on the first uplink carrier to the first serving cell and sends channel feedback on the second uplink carrier to the second serving cell. In a particular aspect, the user equipment determines channel feedback for the selected carrier group by monitoring the HS-SCCH for each downlink carrier assigned to the selected carrier group. In a more detailed aspect, the user equipment triggers mobility between serving cells for the selected carrier group in response to the channel quality being below a threshold of either the first downlink carrier or the second downlink carrier.

In a further illustrative aspect, the user equipment triggers mobility between serving cells in response to the channel quality being below a threshold of a selected one of the first downlink carrier and the second downlink carrier designated as the anchor carrier. In a particular aspect, the user equipment measures the channel quality using the compression mode of the third downlink carrier sent by the new cell to update the active set of neighboring cells and sectors.

In another aspect, the user equipment triggers mobility between serving cells in response to the channel quality being below a threshold of either the first downlink carrier or the second downlink carrier.

In yet another additional aspect, the first serving cell may comprise a first serving sector and the second serving cell may comprise a second serving sector.

In FIG. 2B, a method 250, such as performed by a network device, eg, the RAN 102 of FIG. 1, is for transferring data from two independent cells or sectors to the HSDPA. The RAN allocates, by the RNC, portions of data for transmission to the user equipment to the first serving cell and the second serving cell (block 252). The RAN sends, by the first serving cell, data to the user equipment on the first downlink carrier (block 254). The RAN transmits data to the user equipment on the second downlink carrier by a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell (block 256). In an exemplary aspect, the RAN receives, by the RNC, channel feedback from the user equipment on the first uplink carrier via at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell (block 258).

In an aspect, the first serving cell and the second serving cell are selected by the RNC from the active set based on the measurement report, which may support legacy UEs.

In another aspect, the RAN transmits a first HS-SCCH by a first serving cell for a first downlink carrier and a second HS-SCCH by a second serving cell for a second downlink carrier. . The RAN is channel feedback received in one code word on a first uplink carrier, including High Speed Downlink Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH) information based at least in part on the first HS-SCCH and the second HS-SCCH. Decode In an illustrative aspect, the RAN receives, by at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell, data from the user equipment onto the second uplink carrier, wherein the first uplink carrier comprises an anchor carrier. .

In an additional aspect, the RAN assigns a first downlink carrier and a first uplink carrier to a first carrier group, and assigns a second downlink carrier and a second uplink carrier to a second carrier group. The RAN receives, by the first serving cell, channel feedback from the user equipment onto the first uplink carrier. The RAN receives, by the second serving cell, channel feedback from the user equipment onto the second uplink carrier. In an exemplary aspect, the RAN receives channel feedback for the selected carrier group based on the HS-SCCH for each downlink carrier assigned to the selected carrier group. In a particular aspect, the RAN triggers mobility between serving cells for the selected carrier group in response to the channel quality being below a threshold of either the first downlink carrier or the second downlink carrier.

In a further aspect, the RAN transmits, by the first serving cell, data to another user equipment using the second downlink carrier. The RAN selects, through the operation of the RNC, a first serving cell for transmitting the first downlink carrier to the user equipment and a second serving cell for transmitting the second downlink carrier to increase throughput.

In another aspect, the RAN transmits, by the first serving cell, data using the second downlink carrier. The RAN transmits, by the second serving cell, data to other user equipment using the first uplink carrier. The RAN selects, through the operation of the RNC, a first serving cell for transmitting the first downlink carrier for load balancing and a second serving cell for transmitting the second downlink carrier.

In another additional aspect, the RAN triggers mobility between serving cells in response to the channel quality being below a threshold of a selected one of the first downlink carrier and the second downlink carrier.

In another additional aspect, the RAN triggers mobility between serving cells in response to the channel quality being below a threshold of either the first downlink carrier or the second downlink carrier.

In one aspect, the first serving cell comprises a first serving sector and the second serving cell comprises a second serving sector.

The various concepts presented throughout this invention may be implemented across a wide variety of telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards. As a non-limiting example, aspects of the invention illustrated in FIG. 3 are presented with reference to a UMTS system 300 that uses a W-CDMA air interface. The UMTS network includes three interaction domains: a core network (CN) 304, a UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) 302, and a user equipment (UE) 310. In this example, the UTRAN 302 provides various wireless services, including telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and / or other services. The UTRAN 302 may include a plurality of radio network subsystems (RNSs), such as the RNS 303, each of which is controlled by a respective radio network controller (RNC), such as the RNC 306. Serving Radio Network Subsystem (SRNS) is also used interchangeably herein for RNS. Here, the UTRAN 302 may include any number of RNCs 306 and RNSs 303 in addition to the RNCs 306 and RNSs 303 illustrated herein. The RNC 306 is, among other things, the apparatus responsible for allocating, reconfiguring and releasing radio resources within the RNS 303. The RNC 306 may be interconnected to other RNCs (not shown) in the UTRAN 302 via various forms of interfaces such as direct physical connection, virtual network, etc. using any suitable transport network.

The communication between the UE 310 and the Node B 308 may be considered to include a physical (PHY) layer and a medium access control (MAC) layer. In addition, communication between the UE 310 and the RNC 306 by each NodeB 308 may be considered to include a radio resource control (RRC) layer. In the instant specification, the PHY layer may be considered as layer 1, the MAC layer may be considered as layer 2, and the RRC layer may be considered as layer 3. The information below herein utilizes the terms introduced in the Radio Resource Control (RRC) Protocol Specification, 3GPP TS 25.331 v9.1.0, which is incorporated by reference herein.

The geographic area covered by the SRNS 303 can be divided into a number of cells, and the wireless transceiver device serves each cell. A wireless transceiver apparatus is generally referred to as Node B in UMTS applications, but also by those skilled in the art, a base station (BS), a base transceiver station (BTS), a wireless base station, a wireless transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), It may be referred to as an extended service set (ESS), access point (AP) or some other suitable term. For clarity, three NodeBs 308 are shown in each SRNS 303, but the SRNSs 303 may include any number of wireless NodeBs. NodeBs 308 provide wireless access points to core network (CN) 304 for any number of mobile devices. Examples of mobile devices include cellular phones, smart phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, laptops, notebooks, netbooks, smartbooks, personal digital assistants (PDAs), satellite radios, global positioning system (GPS) devices, multimedia devices, Video devices, digital audio players (MP3 players), cameras, game consoles, or any other similar functional device. A mobile device is generally referred to as user equipment (UE) in UMTS applications, but also by those skilled in the art, a mobile station (MS), subscriber station, mobile unit, subscriber unit, wireless unit, remote unit, mobile device, wireless device, A wireless communication device, remote device, mobile subscriber station, access terminal (AT), mobile terminal, wireless terminal, remote terminal, handset, terminal, user agent, mobile client, client, or some other suitable terminology. In a UMTS system, the UE 310 may further include a universal subscriber identity module (USIM) 311 that includes the user's subscription information to the network. For illustrative purposes, one UE is shown in communication with multiple NodeBs 308. The downlink (DL), also referred to as the forward link, refers to the communication link from the NodeB 308 to the UE 310, and the uplink (UL), also referred to as the reverse link, from the UE 310 to the NodeB 308. Refers to a communication link.

Core network 304 interfaces with one or more access networks, such as UTRAN 302. As shown, the core network 304 is a GSM core network. However, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented in a RAN, or other suitable access network, to provide UEs with access to forms of core networks other than GSM networks. .

Core network 304 includes a circuit-switched (CS) domain and a packet-switched (PS) domain. Some of the circuit-switched elements are a mobile services switching center (MSC), a visitor location register (VLR) and a gateway MSC. The packet-switching elements include Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN). In the illustrated example, the core network 304 supports circuit-switched services via the MSC 312 and the GMSC 314. In some applications, GMSC 314 may be referred to as a media gateway (MGW). One or more RNCs, such as RNC 306, may be connected to MSC 312. The MSC 312 is a device that controls call setup, call routing, and UE mobility functions. The MSC 312 also includes a visitor location register (VLR) that contains subscriber-related information that, during the duration, the UE is within the coverage area of the MSC 312. GMSC 314 provides a gateway through MSC 312 for the UE to access circuit-switched network 316. GMSC 314 includes a home location register (HLR) 315 that contains subscriber data, such as data that reflects details of services subscribed to a particular user. The HLR is also associated with an authentication center (Auc) that contains subscriber-specific authentication data. When a call is received for a particular UE, the GMSC 314 queries the HLR 315 to determine the location of the UE and forwards the call to the specific MSC serving that location. Some network elements, such as EIR, HLR, VLR and AuC, can be shared by both circuit-switched and packet-switched domains.

The core network 304 also supports packet-data services via a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) 318 and a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) 320. GPRS, representing generic packet radio services, is designed to provide packet-data services at higher rates than those available through standard circuit-switched data services. GGSN 320 provides URTAN 302 with a connection to a packet-based network 322. Packet-based network 322 may be the Internet, a private data network, or some other suitable packet-based network. The primary function of the GGSN 320 is to provide packet-based network connectivity to the UEs 310. Data packets can be sent between the GGSN 320 and the UE 310 via the SGSN 318, which SGSN 318 performs the same functions as the MSC 312 performs in the circuit-switched domain. Mainly done in

The UMTS air interface is a spread spectrum direct-sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system. Spread-spectrum DS-CDMA spreads user data through multiplication by a sequence of pseudorandom bits called chips. The W-CDMA air interface to UMTS is based on such direct sequence spread spectrum technology and also requires frequency division duplexing (FDD). FDD uses different carrier frequencies for uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) between NodeB 308 and UE 310. Another air interface to UMTS that utilizes DS-CDMA and uses time division duplexing is the TD-SCDMA air interface. While various examples described herein may refer to a W-CDMA air interface, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the basic principles are equally applicable to a TD-SCDMA air interface.

The HSPA air interface includes a series of improvements to the 3G / W-CDMA air interface to facilitate greater throughput and reduced latency. Among other modifications to conventional releases, HSPA utilizes hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), shared channel transmission, and adaptive modulation and coding. Standards defining HSPA include HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) and HSUPA (high speed uplink packet access, also referred to as enhanced uplink or EUL).

HSDPA utilizes a high-speed downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH) as its transport channel. The HS-DSCH is divided into three physical channels: high-speed physical downlink shared channel (HS-PDSCH), high-speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH), and high-speed dedicated physical control channel (HS-DPCCH). Is implemented.

Among these physical channels, the HS-DPCCH carries HARQ ACK / NACK signaling on the uplink to indicate whether the corresponding packet transmission was successfully decoded. That is, with respect to the downlink, the UE 310 provides Node B 308 via HS-DPCCH to indicate whether it correctly decoded the packet on the downlink.

The HS-DPCCH further includes feedback signaling from the UE 310 to assist NodeB 308 in making the correct decision regarding modulation and coding scheme and precoding weight selection.

"HSPA Evolved" or HSPA + is an evolution of the HSPA standard, including MIMO and 64-QAM to enable increased throughput and higher performance. That is, in an aspect of the present invention, NodeB 308 and / or UE 310 may have multiple antennas that support MIMO technology. The use of MIMO technology enables NodeB 308 to use the spatial domain to support spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and transmit diversity.

Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) is commonly used to refer to multiple antenna technology, namely multiple transmit antennas (multiple inputs to a channel) and multiple receive antennas (multiple outputs from a channel). Term. MIMO systems generally improve data transmission performance, allowing diversity gains to reduce multipath fading and increase transmission quality, and spatial multiplexing to increase data throughput. Single input multiple output (SIMO), on the other hand, generally refers to a system utilizing a single transmit antenna (single input for a channel) and multiple receive antennas (multiple outputs from the channel). Thus, in a SIMO system, a single transport block is transmitted over each carrier.

UE 310, which may be the same or similar to user equipment 114 (FIG. 1), may be coupled to an independent serving cell receive controller (ISCRC) 103 (FIG. 1) to perform method 200 and other aspects as described herein 1) can be integrated. The UTRAN 302, which may be the same as or similar to the RAN 102 (FIG. 1), is likewise an independent serving cell transmission controller (ISCTC) 101 (to perform the method 250 and other aspects as described herein). 1) can be integrated.

Referring to FIG. 4, an access network 400 in the UTRAN architecture is illustrated. A multiple access wireless communication system includes a number of cellular regions (cells) including cells 402, 404 and 406, each of which may include one or more sectors. The multiple sectors may be formed by groups of antennas each antenna is responsible for communicating with the UEs in a portion of the cell. For example, within cell 402, antenna groups 412, 414, and 416 may each correspond to a different sector. Within cell 404, antenna groups 418, 420, and 422 each correspond to a different sector. In cell 406, antenna groups 424, 426, and 428 each correspond to a different sector. Cells 402, 404 and 406 may include some wireless communication devices such as user equipment or UEs, and the UEs may communicate with one or more sectors of each cell 402, 404 or 406. For example, the UEs 430 and 432 can communicate with the NodeB 442, the UEs 434 and 436 can communicate with the NodeB 444, and the UEs 438 and 440 Communicate with NodeB 446. Here, each NodeB 442, 444, 446 assigns an access point to the nose network for all UEs 430, 432, 434, 436, 438, 440 in each of the cells 402, 404, and 406. It is configured to provide.

As the UE 434 moves from an exemplary location within the cell 404 to the cell 406, communication with the UE 434 may be referred to as a cell 404 from a cell 406 to a target. May be referred to as a cell—a serving cell change (SCC) or handover may occur. Management of the handover procedure may occur at the UE 434, at the NodeBs corresponding to the respective cells, at the radio network controller (RNC) 405, or at another suitable node in the wireless network. For example, during a call with source cell 404, or at any other time, UE 434 may have various parameters of source cell 404 as well as various parameters of neighboring cells, such as cells 406 and 402. Can be monitored. Also, depending on the quality of these parameters, the UE 434 can maintain communication with one or more of the neighbor cells. During this time, the UE 434 may maintain an active set, that is, a list of cells to which the UE 434 is simultaneously connected. For example, UTRA cells currently assigning a downlink dedicated physical channel (DPCH) or a fractional downlink dedicated physical channel (F-DPCH) to the UE 434 may constitute an active set.

The modulation and multiple access schemes used by access network 400 may vary depending on the particular telecommunication standard being deployed. By way of example, the standard may include Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB). EV-DO and UMB are air interface standards published by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) as part of the CDMA2000 family of standards and use CDMA to provide broadband Internet access to mobile stations. The standard alternatively includes Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) using other variants of CDMA such as Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and TD-SCDMA; Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) using TDMA; And flash-OFDM using Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, and OFDMA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE Advanced and GSM are described in documents from the 3GPP organization. CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documents from the 3GPP2 organization. The actual wireless communication standard used and the number of access technologies will depend on the overall design constraints imposed on the particular application and system.

The UE 432, which may be the same as or similar to the user equipment 114 (FIG. 1), may use an independent serving cell reception controller (ISCRC) 103 (to perform the method 200 and other aspects as described herein). 1) can be integrated. Node B 442, which may be the same as or similar to base node 108, 112 (FIG. 1), is likewise an independent serving cell transfer controller (ISCTC) to perform method 250 and other aspects as described herein. 101 (FIG. 1) can be integrated.

5 is a block diagram of NodeB 510 in communication with UE 550, where NodeB 510 may be RAN 102 (FIG. 1), and UE 550 may be user equipment 114 ( 1). In downlink communications, transmit processor 520 may receive data from data source 512 and control signals from controller / processor 540. The transmit processor 520 provides various signal processing functions for data and control signals as well as reference signals (pilot signals). For example, the transmission processor 520 may include cyclic redundancy check (CRC) for error detection, coding and interleaving to facilitate forward error correction (FEC), binary phase-shift keying (BPSK), and quadrature phase- Mapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes such as shift keying, M-phase-shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM), and through orthogonal variable spreading factors (OVSF) Spreading and multiplication with scrambling codes to generate a series of symbols. Channel estimates from channel processor 544 may be used by controller / processor 540 to determine coding, modulation, spreading, and / or scrambling schemes for transmit processor 520. Such channel estimates may be derived from a reference signal sent by the UE 550 or from feedback from the UE 550. The symbols generated by the transmit processor 520 are provided to a transmit frame processor 530 to generate a frame structure. The transmit frame processor 530 generates this frame structure by multiplying the symbols with the information from the controller / processor 540 to generate a series of frames. The frames are then provided to transmitter 532, which transmits various signal conditioning functions, including amplifying, filtering, and modulating the frames into a carrier for downlink transmission over the wireless medium via antenna 534. Provide them. Antenna 534 may include one or more antennas, including, for example, beam steering bidirectional adaptive antenna arrays or other similar beam technologies.

At the UE 550, the receiver 554 receives the downlink transmission via the antenna 552 and processes the transmission to recover the carrier modulated information. The information recovered by the receiver 554 is provided to the receiving frame processor 560, which parses each frame and provides the information from the frames to the channel processor 594. And provide data, control and reference signals to the receiving processor 570. The receiving processor 570 then performs the inverse of the processing performed by the transmitting processor 520 in the NodeB 510. More specifically, the receiving processor 570 descrambles and despreads the symbols and then determines the most likely signal constellation points transmitted by the NodeB 510 based on the modulation scheme. Such soft decisions may be based on channel estimates calculated by the channel processor 594. Soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data, control and reference signals. The CRC codes are then checked to determine if the frames have been successfully decoded. The data delivered by the successfully decoded frames will then be provided to the data sink 572, which represents applications running in the UE 550 and / or various user interfaces (display). Control signals carried by successfully decoded frames will be provided to a controller / processor 590. When the frames are successfully decoded by the receiving processor 570, the controller / processor 590 may also use an acknowledgment (ACK) and / or negative acknowledgment (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames. Can be used.

In the uplink, data from data source 578 and control signals from controller / processor 590 are provided to transmit processor 580. Data source 578 may represent applications running on UE 550 and various user interfaces (keyboard). Similar to the functionality described in connection with the downlink transmission by NodeB 510, the transmission processor 580 may include CRC codes, coding and interleaving to facilitate FEC, mapping to signal constellations, and through OVSFs. It provides various signal processing functions including spreading and scrambling to generate a series of symbols. The channel estimates derived by the channel processor 594 from the reference signal transmitted by the NodeB 510 or from the feedback contained in the midamble transmitted by the NodeB 510 are appropriately coded, modulated, spread. And / or to select scrambling schemes. The symbols generated by the transmit processor 580 will be provided to the transmit frame processor 582 to generate a frame structure. The transmit frame processor 582 generates this frame structure by multiplying the symbols with the information from the controller / processor 590 to generate a series of frames. The frames are then provided to transmitter 556, which transmits various signal conditioning, including modulating the frames into a carrier for amplification, filtering, and uplink transmission over the wireless medium via antenna 552. Provides functions

The uplink transmission is processed at the NodeB 510 in a similar manner as described with respect to the receiver function at the UE 550. Receiver 535 receives the uplink transmission via antenna 534 and processes the transmission to recover carrier modulated information. Information recovered by the receiver 535 is provided to the receiving frame processor 536, which parses each frame, provides information from the frames to the channel processor 554, and provides data, Provide control and reference signals to the receiving processor 538. Receive processor 538 performs the inverse of the processing performed by transmit processor 580 at UE 550. The data and control signals carried by the successfully decoded frames may then be provided to the data sink 539 and the controller / processor, respectively. If some of the frames were successfully decoded by the receiving processor, the controller / processor 540 may also use an acknowledgment (ACK) and / or negative acknowledgment (NAK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames. Can be.

Controllers / processors 540 and 590 may be used to direct the operation at Node B 510 and UE 550, respectively. For example, controllers / processors 540 and 590 can provide various functions including timing, peripheral interfaces, voltage regulation, power management, and other control functions. Computer-readable media of the memories 542 and 592 may store data and software for the NodeB 510 and the UE 550, respectively. Scheduler / processor 546 at NodeB 510 may be used to allocate resources to UEs and schedule downlink and / or uplink transmissions to the UEs.

The UE 550, which may be the same or similar to the user equipment 114 (FIG. 1), may use an independent serving cell reception controller (ISCRC) 103 (to perform the method 200 and other aspects as described herein). 1) can be integrated. Node B 510, which may be the same as or similar to base node 108, 112 (FIG. 1), is likewise an independent serving cell transfer controller (ISCTC) to perform method 250 and other aspects as described herein. 101 (FIG. 1) can be integrated.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus 600 using the processing system 602, such as in the RAN 102 (FIG. 1) or the user equipment 114 (FIG. 1). . In this example, processing system 602 may be implemented with a bus architecture, represented generally by bus 604. The bus 604 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specific application of the processing system 602 and the overall design constraints. Bus 604 links together various circuits including one or more processors, generally represented as processor 606, and computer-readable media, generally represented by computer-readable medium 608. The bus 604 may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and will therefore not be described any further. Bus interface 610 provides an interface between bus 604 and transceiver 612. The transceiver 612 provides a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. Depending on the nature of the device, a user interface 614 such as a keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick may also be provided.

Processor 606 is responsible for managing the bus 604 and general processing, including the execution of software stored on computer-readable medium 608. The software, when executed by the processor 606, causes the processing system 602 to perform the various functions described below in any particular apparatus. Computer-readable medium 608 may also be used to store data manipulated by processor 606 when executing software.

Computer-readable medium 608 is independent serving cell reception controller (ISCRC) 103 (FIG. 1) to perform other aspects as described herein with respect to method 200 and user equipment 114 (FIG. 1). ) May be included. Alternatively, computer readable medium 608 may provide an independent serving cell transfer controller (ISCTC) 101 (FIG. 1) to perform other aspects as described herein with respect to method 250 and RAN 102. It may include.

Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), which utilizes single carrier modulation and frequency domain equalization, is a wireless technology that builds on OFDMA. SC-FDMA has similar performance and essentially the same overall complexity as an OFDMA system. However, SC-FDMA signals have the advantage of lower peak-to-avergae power ratio (PAPR) due to their inherent single carrier structure. SC-FDMA attracts particular attention in uplink communications where lower PAPR is greatly beneficial in mobile terminals in terms of transmit power efficiency. This is currently a tentative assumption for uplink multiple access schemes in 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Evolved UTRA.

7 illustrates a method 700 of transmitting data from a single serving cell in a single sector onto a plurality of carriers to a given legacy UE 702, where the radio access network (RAN) 704 is a plurality of cells. Or independently transmit data from the sectors to the legacy UE 702. Referring to FIG. 7, the RAN 704 determines that the legacy UE 702 is not limited to receiving data from a single serving cell (block 710). The legacy UE 702 sets sector 1 of the RAN 704 as its serving sector (block 712). For example, setting up the serving sector may include the UE monitoring and measuring the pilot signal of sector 1 and then successfully camping on sector 1. After sector 1 is set as a serving sector for legacy UE 702, sector 1 assigns uplink UL_F1 of carrier F1 to legacy UE 702 and also downlink DL_F1 of carrier (or frequency) F1 and Also assume that the legacy UE 702 is instructed to monitor the downlink of carrier F2, which receives mobile-terminated data from sector 1 on the downlink of carrier F2. In an example, uplink carrier UL_F1 may be used by legacy UE 702 to report feedback that may be used to adjust downlink transmission power and data rate from sector 1 to legacy UE 702. In a further example, the downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 are different from those used to communicate with the legacy UE 702 according to the MIMO physical layer of Release 7 and the DC-HSDPA or dual-carrier DC-HSDPA of Releases 8 and / or 9. May correspond to frequencies. Downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 may each include a respective HS-DSCH transmitted by different sectors on different carriers. In addition, the uplink carrier UL_F1 may include a High-Speed Dedicated Physical Control Carrier (HS-DPCCH) in which the legacy UE 702 may provide feedback to sector 1.

Sector 1 of the RAN 704 begins transmitting to the legacy UE 702 on downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2, and the legacy UE 702 tunes to and receives these downlink transmissions (block 716). Can be assumed. At block 718, the legacy UE 702 may identify downlink pilot signals from each sector and / or local cells or sectors in its active set to identify cells that are not yet in the active set of the legacy UE 702. Monitor them. Although not explicitly shown in FIG. 7, the legacy UE 702 may also monitor and monitor downlink data transmissions on DL_F1 and DL_F2 to provide the physical layer (Channel Quality Indicators (CQIs) and / or H-ARQ information). It can measure and the physical layer can be transmitted on the reverse-link physical layer channel (HS-DPCCH). As will be appreciated, measurements made by legacy UE 702 may generate mobility events that may cause changes to the active set of legacy UE 702.

After monitoring the downlink pilot signals during the time period at block 718, the legacy UE 702 sends channel feedback to sector 1 on the uplink carrier UL_F1 (block 720). For example, the channel feedback may include one or more of an average signal strength of each of the monitored downlink pilot signals and / or an average pilot signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) of each of the monitored downlink pilot signals. . Channel feedback may be forwarded to the serving RNC at the RAN 704, which uses the channel feedback to perform mobility management, including changes to the active set. Channel feedback may be sent in Radio Resource Control (RRC) messages that are treated as data by the physical layer. Sector 1 of the RAN 704 receives HS-DPCCH feedback from the legacy UE 702 on the uplink carrier UL_F1, forwards the channel feedback to the serving RNC, and, if necessary, the serving RNC based on the legacy UE (based on the feedback). Update the active set of 702 (block 722).

FIG. 8 illustrates a wireless communication system 800 showing connections established between sector 1 of the RAN 704 of FIG. 7 and the legacy UE 702. Thus, FIG. 8 illustrates two (2) downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 from sector 1 to legacy UE 702, and FIG. 8 also shows up from sector UE 702 to sector 1 of RAN 704. Illustrate link carrier UL_F1.

Although communicating with target UEs on multiple frequency bands within a single serving sector may improve throughput compared to communicating with the same UEs on a single frequency band of a single serving sector, an aspect of the innovation of the present invention. Are directed to further improving throughput through communication between multiple serving sectors and at least one target UE. In the aspects described below, the target UE has physical layer feedback (CQIs and H_ARQ information for each of its carriers (collectively forming a single 'carrier group') on multiple serving sectors, as in FIG. 9A. A single uplink carrier (UL_F1 or UL_F2) to transmit HS-DPCCH feedback, such as may be allocated, or alternatively different 'groups' of its carriers that may be distributed among different sectors, as in FIG. 9B. A number of uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 may be assigned to transmit physical layer feedback for. In addition, channel feedback such as measured average signal strength and average pilot SIR of local downlink pilot signals from sectors near the UE 902 may be transmitted on any of the available uplink carriers. May be sent in RRC messages.

9A illustrates a method 900 of transmitting data to a given UE via multiple serving sectors, in accordance with an aspect of the innovation of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 9A, the RNC 903 and the UE 902 set sector 1 906 of the RAN 904 as a serving sector (block 950). For example, setting up sector 1 906 may include the UE 902 monitoring and measuring the pilot signal of sector 1 906 and then successfully camping on sector 1 906. After sector 1 906 is set up as a serving sector for the UE, sector 1 906 assigns uplink carrier UL_F1 to UE 902 and also receives mobile-terminated data from sector 1 906. Assume that UE 902 is instructed to monitor one or more downlink carriers (or frequencies) DL_F1 and DL_F2 to do (block 916). Sector 1 906 communicates with UE 902 on a single downlink carrier (DL_F1 or DL_F2, but not both), as will be described in greater detail below in connection with the exemplary implementations of Figures 10A- Or alternatively can communicate with UE 902 simultaneously on both carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2.

In an example, the uplink carrier UL_F1 can be used by the UE 902 to report channel feedback that can be used by the serving RNC to maintain active set (s) for the UE. For example, the measured signal strength and / or SIR associated with local cells or sectors whose active set is controlled by UL_F1 may be updated. In a further example, the downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 are different frequencies used to communicate with the UE 902 according to the MIMO physical layer of Release 7 and DC-HSDPA or Dual-carrier DC-HSDPA of Releases 8 and / or 9. It can correspond to these. The downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 may include two HS-DSCHs transmitted by different sectors 906 at different frequencies. In addition, the uplink carrier UL_F1 may include a High-Speed Dedicated Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH).

Referring to FIG. 9A, sector 1 906 begins transmitting to the UE on downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 (block 914). The UE 902 monitors downlink pilot signals of each sector and / or local cells or sectors in its active set to identify cells that are not yet in the active set of the UE (block 916). As will be appreciated, measurements made by the UE 902 may generate mobility events that, when reported to the network, may cause the serving RNC 903 to change the active set of the UE 902. For example, the measurements made by the UE 902 at block 916 may be configured in the same way as in Rel. 8, Rel. 9, and Rel. 10, regardless of the compression mode (CM) operation. After monitoring the downlink pilot signals during the time period in block 916, the UE 902 sends channel feedback to sector 1 906 on the uplink carrier UL_F1 (block 918). For example, the channel feedback may be the average signal strength of each of the monitored downlink pilot signals and / or the average pilot SIR of each of the monitored downlink pilot signals based on the measurements taken by the UE 902 at block 916. It may include. Sector 1 906 of the RAN 904 receives channel feedback from the UE 902 on the uplink carrier UL_F1, forwards mobility to the serving RNC, and, if necessary, the serving RNC 903 based on the channel feedback. Update the active set (s) for the UE 902 (block 920).

Although not explicitly shown in FIG. 9A, the UE 902 may also monitor and downlink data transmissions on DL_F1 and DL_F2 to provide physical layer feedback (Channel Quality Indicators (CQIs) and / or H-ARQ information). Measurable, the physical layer feedback is sent to sector 1 906 on the reverse-link physical layer channel (HS-DPCCH) of UL_F1, and then the data rate on DL_F1 and / or DL_F2 from sector 1 906 and And / or used by sector 1 906 (in the active set of the UE) to adjust the transmit power level.

At some later point in time, assume that the UE 902 enters a handover area between its current serving sector 1 906 and another sector (“sector 2 908”) (block 922). As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, 'soft handover' as used in other wireless protocols is typically not supported by HSDPA since HSDPA was introduced in Release 5. Rather, HSDPA in Release 5+ is 'hard handover' on the downlink-side so that only one serving cell is transmitting to the target UE 902, even when the target UE 902 is present in the method of handing off to a new serving cell. Supports the form of '. In other words, there is typically no overlap period of coverage by multiple cells for the target UE 902 in HSDPA release 5+.

Returning back to the aspects of FIG. 9A, when adding both sectors 1 and 2 (906, 908) as serving sectors of the UE 902 at block 924, each of sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 is included. Different mobile terminated data from the serving RNC 903 of the RAN 904 may be provided for transmission to the UE 902. In terms of uplink, sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 (and any other sectors in the active set of UE 902) are UE-transmitted on their respective carriers UL_F1 and / or UL_F2. Will be monitored. In an example version, sector 2 908 is selected as the serving cell or sector for UE 902 based in part on the presence of sector 2 908 in the active set of UE 902. As will be appreciated, in an example, the active sets are strictly associated with uplink power control and scheduling grant calculations, and the number of active sets must be equal to or less than the number of uplink carriers allocated to the UE. Thus, as an example, the maximum number of serving cells across all downlink carriers is equal to or less than the number of uplink carriers.

Thus, after sector 2 908 is set as the second serving sector for the UE, one or more downlink carriers (or frequencies) to which sector 2 908 will receive mobile-terminated data from sector 2 908. Assume that UE 902 is instructed to monitor DL_F1 and DL_F2 (block 926). As will be described in more detail below with respect to the example implementations of FIGS. 10A-10G, sector 2 908 communicates with the UE 902 on a single downlink carrier (DL_F1 or DL_F2, but not both). Or, alternatively, it may communicate with the UE 902 on both carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2. As will be appreciated, the mobile-terminated data forwarded for transmission by sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 need not be the same, and the amount of data need not be the same either. Rather, the serving RNC controlling sectors 1 and 2 (906, 908) is DL_F1 and / or between sectors 1 and 2 (906, 908) and also in sectors 1 and 2 (906, 908) in an appropriate manner. It may be involved in load-balancing to distribute data for transmission to the UE 902 between DL_F2. This indicates that the serving RNC 903 is currently loading on different sectors and different carriers, as well as which sector is 'primary' and which sector is 'secondary' for a particular carrier, as will be discussed in more detail below. May involve taking into account other factors such as

9A, sector 2 908 begins transmitting to the UE on downlink carriers DL_F1 and / or DL_F2 (block 928), and sector 1 906 is on downlink carriers DL_F1 and / or DL_F2. Continue transmission to the UE (block 930). At blocks 928 and 930, it can be assumed that the UE 902 is tuned to and receives these downlink transmissions.

At block 932, the UE 902 monitors downlink pilot signals of each sector and / or local cells or sectors in its active set to identify cells that are not yet in the active set of the UE. As will be appreciated, the measurements made by the UE 902 may generate mobility events that, when forwarded to the serving RNC, may cause the serving RNC to change the active set of the UE. For example, the measurements made by the UE 902 at block 932 may be configured in the same way as in Rel. 8, Rel. 9 and Rel. 10, regardless of the compression mode (CM). After monitoring the downlink pilot signals during the time period at block 932, the UE 902 sends channel feedback on the uplink carrier UL_F1 (block 934). For example, the channel feedback may be the average signal strength of each of the monitored downlink pilot signals and / or the average pilot SIR of each of the monitored downlink pilot signals based on measurements taken by the UE 902 at block 932. It may include. In aspects of FIG. 9A, it may be assumed that sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 of the RAN 904 receive channel feedback from the UE 902 on the uplink carrier UL_F1. For example, sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 may each be in an active set of UL_F1, which indicates that sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 activate uplink transmissions from UE 902 on UL_F1. It means to monitor the data. Thus, when the UE 902 transmits on UL_F1 at block 934, both sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 receive the transmission. In this regard, each of sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 forwards channel feedback to serving RNC 903 and, if necessary, serving RNC 903 sets an active set for UE 902 based on the channel feedback. Update (s) (blocks 936, 938).

Although not explicitly shown in FIG. 9A, the UE 902 may also be provided from sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 to provide physical layer feedback such as Channel Quality Indicators (CQIs) and / or H-ARQ information. Can monitor and measure downlink data transmissions on DL_F1 and DL_F2, and physical layer feedback is sent to sectors 1 and 2 (906, 908) on a reverse-link physical layer channel, such as HS-DPCCH, of UL_F1, It can then be used by sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 to adjust the data rate and / or transmit power level on DL_F1 and / or DL_F2 from the respective sectors.

In the aspects of FIG. 9A discussed above, UE 902 is assigned a single uplink carrier UL_F1 to send physical layer feedback to serving sectors 1 and 2 906, 908. Thus, with regard to power control, downlink carriers DL_F1 and / or DL_F2 from sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 may be configured such that each carrier from each sector is a single uplink carrier UL_F1 (ie, 'anchor'). Part of the same 'carrier group' in that it is controlled based on physical layer feedback from the 'carrier'. In the aspects of FIG. 9B described below, the UE 902 is assigned a number of uplink carriers to provide feedback. In this version, different carrier groups may be associated with each uplink carrier assigned to the UE.

9B illustrates another method of transmitting data to the UE 902 via multiple serving sectors, in accordance with an aspect of the innovation of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 9B, blocks 910-924 are as described in FIG. 9A, which will not be described further for the sake of brevity.

Referring to FIG. 9B, after adding sector 2 908 as an additional serving sector at block 924, sector 2 908 receives one or more downlinks to receive mobile-terminated data from sector 2 908. Instruct UE 902 to monitor the carriers (or frequencies) DL_F1 and DL_F2 (block 940), and block 940 is similar to block 926 of FIG. 9A. However, unlike FIG. 9A, sector 2 908 also allocates a second uplink carrier (UL_F2) to UE 902 at block 940.

Referring to FIG. 9B, sector 2 908 begins transmitting on downlink carriers DL_F1 and / or DL_F2 (block 942), and sector 1 906 transmits UE on downlink carriers DL_F1 and / or DL_F2. Continue to transmit (block 944). At blocks 942, 944, the UE 902 tunes to and receives these downlink transmissions. At block 946, the UE 902 receives downlink pilot signals of each sector and / or local cells or sectors in its active set to identify cells that are not yet in the active set of the UE 902. Monitor. As will be appreciated, the measurements made by the UE 902 can cause the serving RNC 903 to generate mobility events that, when forwarded to the serving RNC 903, can cause the UE 902 to change the active set have. For example, the measurements made by the UE 902 at block 946 in the compression mode (CM regardless of CM) may be configured in the same way as in Rel.8, Rel.9 and Rel.10.

As discussed briefly above, uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 may be associated with its own active set and its own carrier group, each carrier group having an uplink carrier with downlink transmit power and / or data rate. Correspond to a set of sectors controlled based in part on physical layer feedback provided from either UL_F1 or UL_F2. As in FIG. 9B, when there are two or more uplink carriers, each carrier group controls the network (ie, sectors 1 and 2 906, 908) such that carriers within the same carrier group have similar coverage areas. Network RNC 903). For example, carriers supported by the same serving sector may collectively form part of a carrier group. In FIG. 9B, there are two carrier groups (unless an anchor carrier is used on the uplink) because the two uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 of DC HSUPA must each have their own active set.

In an example, each of the two uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 may independently control their respective carrier groups (in terms of data rate and / or transmit power). Alternatively one of the uplink carriers may comprise an 'anchor' carrier and the other uplink carrier comprises at least a carrier paired with a secondary uplink carrier. Other 'unpaired' downlink carriers can be placed in either of two carrier groups. Grouping may be implemented in such a way that carriers within the same carrier group have similar handover boundaries.

Measurements of downlink pilot signals made by the UE 902 at block 946 can trigger 'mobility events'. Regarding mobility, in the anchor carrier version, each mobility event (or soft handover, switching to a new or different serving cell, dropping an old serving cell, etc.) is based on the anchor carrier UL_F1. In this case, the secondary uplink carrier UL_F2 is treated as 'unused' and event 2x is used for the measurements. The UE 902's ability to measure secondary uplink carriers without a compression mode (CM) may be beneficial for identifying new cells on this frequency. For example, assuming that UL_F1 is an uplink anchor carrier, as UE 902 moves from sector 1 906 to sector 2 908, the service from DL_F1 on sector 1 906 may be sector 1 906. ) May be added only when it is added to the active set of UL_F2. New mobility events may also promote the UE 902 to report DL_F1 strength while UL_F1 is an anchor carrier.

In an alternative version, instead of triggering reports from the UE 902 based solely on the channel quality of the cells on the anchor frequency, the reports may also be based on the measured channel quality on other non-anchor frequencies. Can be triggered from, which can help with uneven loading in the network.

In another alternative version, mobility event management may be implemented on a per carrier group basis instead of via a single anchor carrier. As noted above, the active set is maintained per carrier group. In the example, assume that the UE maintains two independent active sets (one for each carrier group) and the discovery on both carrier groups can be performed without a CM. In this case, when the UE 902 leaves sector 2 908 and moves towards sector 1 906, the service on DL_F1 from sector 1 906 is such that DL_F2 on sector 1 906 is the active set of UL_F2. Instead of being added to, DL_F1 on sector 1 906 may be added when added to the active set on UL_F1. This causes a greater expansion of DL_F1 service from sector 1 906. This option may require DC-HSUPA support. In addition, the issue of the physical layer feedback channel on the uplink can be mitigated by allowing the HS-DPCCH for each downlink carrier DL_F1, DL_F2 to be delivered separately on each paired uplink carrier UL_F1, UL_F2. Can be.

As will be described in more detail below with respect to the example implementations of FIGS. 10A-10G, sector 2 908 is associated with a UE 902 defined on a single downlink carrier (DL_F1 or DL_F2, but not both). Or alternatively communicate with a given UE 902 simultaneously on both carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2. Downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 in sector 2 908 (if present) are associated with downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 in sector 1 906 (if present), except that they are sent from a different serving sector of a given UE. It can be considered to be constructed in a substantially similar manner.

Returning back to FIG. 9B, after monitoring the downlink pilot signals for a period of time at block 946, the determined UE 902 sends channel feedback to sector 1 906 on the uplink carrier UL_F1 (block 948). ) And also sends channel feedback to sector 2 908 separately on uplink carrier UL_F2 (block 950). Thus, the example version of FIG. 9B corresponds to a non-anchor carrier version, whereby the carrier groups for UL_F1 and UL_F2 are controlled separately. Although not shown in FIG. 9B, an alternative to this approach is the anchor carrier version (described in more detail below), whereby a single uplink carrier (UL_F1 or UL_F2) can be used to provide channel feedback for both carrier groups. (Ie, measured pilots of both carrier groups may be sent on the anchor carrier). In an example, the uplink carrier UL_F1 is associated with a first carrier group that includes at least downlink carriers DL_F1 and / or DL_F2 in sector 1 906, and the uplink carrier UL_F2 is at least downlink carrier in sector 2 908. Associated with a second carrier group comprising the DL_F1 and / or DL_F2. In addition, the channel feedback transmitted at blocks 948 and 950 is based on the measurements taken by the UE 902 determined at block 946 and the average signal strength and / or monitored down of each of the monitored downlink pilot signals. It may include an average pilot SIR of each of the link pilot signals.

Although not explicitly shown in FIG. 9B, a given UE 902 may also have sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 to provide physical layer feedback, such as Channel Quality Indicators (CQIs) and / or H-ARQ information. Can monitor and measure downlink data transmissions on DL_F1 and DL_F2 from the physical layer feedback to sectors 1 and 2 (906, 908) on the reverse link physical layer channel (HS-DPCCH) of UL_F1 and / or UL_F2. And then may be used by sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 to adjust the data rate and / or transmit power level on DL_F1 and / or DL_F2 from the respective sectors. Multiple uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 may allow a given UE 902 to code HS-DPCCH information of carriers in the same carrier group that are coded together and transmitted on the uplink carrier corresponding to this carrier group. . For example, if the UE 902 has two downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 and two uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2, this option may be two downlink carriers (sector 1 and sector). Will encode the HS-PDCCH for DL_F1 and DL_F2) into two uplink carriers.

Returning back to FIG. 9B, sector 1 906 of the RAN 904 receives channel feedback from the UE 902 determined on the uplink carrier UL_F1, forwards the channel feedback to the serving RNC and, if necessary, the serving RNC. Adjusts an active set of a given UE 902 for UL_F1 based on channel feedback (block 952). Similarly, sector 2 908 of RAN 904 receives feedback from UE 902 on the uplink carrier UL_F2, forwards the channel feedback to the serving RNC, and if necessary, the serving RNC determines, based on channel feedback, And adjusts the active set of UE 902 for UL_F2 (block 954).

9A and 9B also show that a given UE 902 sets up sector 1 906 as an initial serving sector, and handovers between sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 by the given UE 902. Upon entering a zone or zone, a scenario of adding sector 2 908 later as another serving sector is illustrated. In an alternative version, a given UE 902 may simply power up in a handover zone or zone between sectors 1 and 2 906, 908, and in either case, both sectors 1 and 2 906, 908. May be set as serving sectors of the UE 902 at the same time.

Also, NodeBs associated with sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 in FIGS. 9A and 9B may have different transmit power capabilities. For example, a NodeB supporting sector 1 906 may support sector 1 906 as a macro-cell, micro-cell or pico-cell, compared to NodeB supporting sector 2 908. To generate different transmit power capabilities. Such transmit power capability differences may lead to scenarios in which allowing different serving cells to operate on different carriers may improve throughput.

In an alternative version, as described above, instead of transmitting separate feedback (channel feedback or physical layer feedback) for the two carrier groups on the uplink channels UL_F1 and UL_F2, of the plurality of uplink carriers. One may be designated as an 'anchor' uplink carrier. In this case, with respect to physical layer feedback, the HS-DPCCH for each downlink carriers (DL_F1 and / or DL_F2 from sector 1 906, DL_F1 and / or DL_F2, etc. from sector 2 908, etc.) The information is jointly coded into one code word (as in Rel.8 for DC HSDPA or Rel.9 for DC HSDPA and MIMO, or Rel.10 for 4C HSDPA) and then via an anchor uplink carrier. Can be sent. As will be appreciated, if a single anchor carrier is used for half of the multiple carrier groups, the serving sector associated with the anchor carrier may forward UE feedback (to other serving sector (s)), or the anchor carrier may be carriers. Each may be monitored, for example, by at least each carrier in an active set of anchor carriers.

Below, a number of implementations of the processes of FIGS. 9A and 9B are provided with respect to FIGS. 10A-10G. More specifically, FIGS. 10A-10G each illustrate a different set of connections that may be established between UE 902 and Serving Sector 1 906 and Sector 2 908 of FIGS. 9A and 9B.

In FIG. 10A, a communication system 1000a according to an implementation of the method of FIG. 9A is illustrated, whereby each of serving sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 is connected to a UE (eg, DL_F1) over the same single downlink carrier (ie, DL_F1). In communication with 902, UE 902 is assigned a single uplink carrier (ie, UL_F1) to provide feedback for a group of carriers. Thus, in the example of FIG. 10A, the second downlink carrier DL_F2 is not used. As will be appreciated, the omission of downlink carrier DL_F2 may be based on the failure of serving sectors 1 and / or 2 supporting downlink carrier DL_F2 (sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 are single carrier frequency evolution). Implemented by the serving RNC that alternatively the load-level for the downlink carrier DL_F2 exceeds a threshold so that resources for supporting the UE 902 on the downlink carrier DL_F2 are not currently available. Can be based.

Referring to FIG. 10A, assume that sectors 1 906 correspond to a 'primary' sector for downlink carrier DL_F1, and sector 2 908 corresponds to a 'secondary' serving sector for downlink carrier DL_F2. do it. In aspects of the innovation of the present invention, each particular downlink carrier may be supported by a single primary serving sector and at least one secondary serving sector. In general, the primary serving sector is more permanent than the secondary serving sector (s) for a particular downlink carrier. In addition, the RNC may indicate more downlink mobile-terminated data to the primary serving sector as opposed to the secondary serving sector. In a further example, the primary serving sector may be associated with a lower load on the associated carrier as compared to the secondary serving sector and / or have a better connection to the UE 902. Downlink carrier DL_F1 in each of sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 carries a separate HS-DSCH that can be monitored by UE 902. In this case, two separate transport blocks can be delivered from UEs 1 and 2 906 and 908 to UE 902 via two HS-DSCHs on the same carrier or frequency (ie DL_F1). In other words, different data is transmitted in the same carrier by different sectors (ie, contrasted with soft handover of non-HSDPA protocols where the same data is transmitted in duplicate in the handover zone). This type of transmission scheme may be referred to as single-frequency dual-cell HSDPA (SF-DC-HSDPA). As will be appreciated, the SF-DC-HSDPA can provide dynamic load balancing in realistic deployments where the system is sometimes fully utilized. As shown in FIG. 10A, each of the primary serving sector 1 906 and the secondary serving sector 2 908 can monitor and receive signals from the UE 902 transmitted on the uplink carrier UL_F1.

In FIG. 10B, a communication system 1000b according to an implementation of the method of FIG. 9A is illustrated, whereby each of serving sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 represents a single downlink carrier (ie, DL_F1 and DL_F2, respectively). In communication with the UE 902, the UE 902 is assigned a single uplink carrier (ie, UL_F1) to provide feedback for a group of carriers. Thus, in the example of FIG. 10B, downlink carrier frequencies DL_F1 and DL_F2 used by sectors 1 and 2 906, 908, respectively, may be orthogonal to each other to reduce interference at UE 902. . Referring to FIG. 10B, assume that each of downlink carrier DL_F1 in sector 1 906 and downlink carrier DL_F2 in sector 2 908 carry a separate HS-DSCH that can be monitored by UE 902. do it. In this case, two separate transport blocks pass from sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 to UE 902 on two carriers or frequencies (ie, DL_F1 and DL_F2) over two HS-DSCHs. Can be. In the example version of FIG. 10B, both serving sectors 1, because serving sector 1 906 communicates with UE 902 via DL_F1 and serving sector 2 908 communicates with UE 902 via DL_F2. And 2 906, 908 are 'primary' with respect to their specific downlink carriers, since there are no secondary carriers in FIG. 10B. As shown in FIG. 10B, each of serving sector 1 906 and serving sector 2 908 is a UE that is transmitted on an uplink carrier UL_F1 even though serving sector 2 908 is not transmitting on DL_F1. The signals from 902 can be monitored and received. In an example, serving sector 2 908 is overloaded to provide downlink support over DL_F1 while serving sector 2 908 can still decode the feedback of UE 902 transmitted on UL_F1 as an anchor carrier. Things can fail.

Also, referring to FIG. 10B, assume that in another example, both sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 support both downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2. However, further assume that DL_F2 on sector 1 906 and DL_F1 on sector 2 908 are overloaded, while DL_F1 on sector 1 906 and DL_F2 on sector 2 908 are slightly loaded. In this case, serving the UE 902 from sector 1 906 onto DL_F1 and from sector 2 908 onto DL_F2 (as shown in FIG. 10B) will result in increased throughput. As will be appreciated, there are many different scenarios in which serving the UE 902 from different sectors onto different carriers may improve the service for the UE 902.

In FIG. 10C, a communication system 1000c in accordance with an implementation of the method of FIG. 9B is illustrated whereby each of serving sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 is a single (and different) downlink carrier (ie, DL_F1 and DL_F2). Communicate with the UE 902 via each of the plurality of carrier groups (ie, the first carrier group includes at least DL_F2 of sector 2 908, and the second carrier group includes at least sectors). Two uplink carriers (ie, UL_F1 and UL_F2) are allocated to provide feedback for 1 (906), including DL_F1. In the example of FIG. 10C, FIG. 10C provides two uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 to the UE 902 instead of a single uplink carrier UL_F1 from FIG. 10B, thereby providing two for the UE 902. Similar to the example described above with respect to FIG. 10B, except that separate carrier groups and active sets occur. Thus, the two uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 allow the UE 902 to separately control two separate carrier groups via UL_F1 and UL_F2, as described above with respect to FIG. 9B. For example, uplink carrier UL_F1 may provide feedback associated with a first carrier group that includes at least downlink carrier DL_F1 on sector 1 906, and uplink carrier UL_F2 may at least downlink on sector 2 908. It may provide feedback associated with a second carrier group that includes the carrier DL_F2.

Alternatively, referring to FIG. 10C, although two uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 are provided to the UE 902, feedback for both carrier groups may be provided on a single anchor carrier (UL_F1 or UL_F2). Can be. In this case, both sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 are in the active set for the anchor carrier so that the feedback on the anchor carrier will be properly decoded by both sectors. Additional description of FIG. 10C will be omitted for simplicity due to its similarity to FIG. 10B.

Referring to FIG. 10C, assume that in the example, sector 1 906 corresponds to a hot spot that supports both downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2, while sector 2 908 supports only downlink carrier DL_F1. In this case, when UE 902 is located in the handover area between sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 and is closer to sector 2 908 than sector 1 906, sector 1 (on DL_F1) is located. Higher throughput may be obtained by serving the UE 902 from 906 and from sector 2 908 onto DL_F2. Thus, range-extension for serving the UE 902 may be achieved in an unusual deployment scenario (ie, a scenario in which not all sectors support both DL_F1 and DL_F2).

As will be appreciated, FIGS. 10A-10G illustrate downlink carriers of different sectors (DL_F1 on sector 1 906 and DL_F1 on sector 2 908 as in FIG. 10A or sectors as in FIGS. 10B and 10C). UEs 902 configured for operation in the case of receiving two separate transport blocks on DL_F1 on 1 906 and DL_F2 on sector 2 908. Such UEs 902 are described in relation to FIGS. 10D-10G as being able to tune to three (3) or more transport blocks simultaneously on a plurality of downlink carriers. UEs 902 that can tune to three or more transport blocks simultaneously on a plurality of downlink carriers may be characterized as 4C-HSDPA compatible UEs of release 10.

In FIG. 10D, a communication system 1000d in accordance with an implementation of the method of FIG. 9A is illustrated, whereby serving sector 1 906 communicates with the UE 902 via a single downlink carrier (ie, DL_F1), and serves. Sector 2 908 communicates with the UE 902 via a number of downlink carriers (ie, DL_F1 and DL_F2), each of which has groups of carriers (ie, the first carrier group is at least sector 2). 908, DL_F1 and DL_F2, and the second carrier group is assigned a single uplink carrier (i.e., UL_F1 or anchor carrier) to provide feedback for at least sector 1 906's DL_F1. Thus, in the example of FIG. 10D, sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 support UE 902 via both overlapping (ie, DL_F1) and non-overlapping (ie, DL_F2) carriers. In the example version of FIG. 10D, serving sector 1 906 is the primary sector to support DL_F1 and serving sector 2 908 is the secondary sector to support DL_F1. Also, because sector 2 908 is a sector supporting only DL_F2 in FIG. 10D, sector 2 908 is 'primary' to DL_F2 in that there are no secondary sectors supporting DL_F2. With reference to FIG. 10D, each of downlink carriers DL_F1 in sector 1 906 and downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 in sector 2 908 are separate HS-DSCHs that may be monitored by UE 902. Suppose you pass. In this case, three (3) separate transport blocks are sectors via three HS-DSCHs on different carriers or frequencies (ie DL_F1 in sector 1 906 and DL_F2 in sector 2 908). From 1 and 2 906, 908 to UE 902. As shown in FIG. 10D, since each of the primary serving sector 1 906 and the secondary serving sector 2 908 supports F1, and sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 are each assigned to the anchor carrier UL_F1. Because of being in the active set for, each of sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 can monitor and receive signals from UE 902 sent on uplink carrier UL_F1 as an anchor carrier.

In FIG. 10E, a communication system 1000e in accordance with an implementation of the method of FIG. 9B is illustrated, whereby serving sector 1 906 communicates with the UE 902 via a single downlink carrier (ie, DL_F1), and serves. Sector 2 908 communicates with UE 902 via a number of downlink carriers (ie, DL_F1 and DL_F2), and two uplink carriers (ie, to provide UE 902 with feedback for a carrier group). , UL_F1 and UL_F2) are allocated. In the example of FIG. 10E, FIG. 10E provides two uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 to the UE 902 instead of a single uplink carrier UL_F1 from FIG. 10D, thereby providing two for the UE 902. Similar to the example described above with respect to FIG. 10D, except that it generates separate carrier groups and active sets. Thus, the two uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 may be configured to allow the UE 902 to separate two separate carrier groups via a separate anchor carrier selected from UL_F1 and UL_F2 or separately, as described above with respect to FIG. 9B. Allow to control For example, uplink carrier UL_F1 may provide feedback associated with a first carrier group that includes at least downlink carrier DL_F1 on sector 1 906, and uplink carrier UL_F2 may at least downlink on sector 2 908. It may provide feedback associated with a second carrier group that includes carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2. Alternatively, even if two separate uplink carriers are assigned to the UE, feedback for both carrier groups may be provided via a single anchor carrier UL_F1 or UL_F2 as described above. Additional description of FIG. 10E will be omitted for simplicity due to its similarity to FIG. 10D.

In FIG. 10F, a communication system 1000f in accordance with an implementation of the method of FIG. 9A is illustrated, whereby serving sector 1 906 communicates with the UE 902 over multiple downlink carriers (ie, DL_F1 and DL_F2). In communication, serving sector 2 908 also communicates with UE 902 on the same downlink carriers (ie, DL_F1 and DL_F2), and provides a single uplink carrier to UE 902 to provide feedback for the carrier group. (Ie, UL_F1) is assigned. Thus, in the example of FIG. 10F, sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 support UE 902 on the same overlapping carriers (ie, DL_F1 and DL_F2). In the example version of FIG. 10F, serving sector 1 906 is the primary sector for DL_F1 and secondary sector for DL_F2, and serving sector 2 908 is the primary sector for DL_F2 and the secondary sector for DL_F1. to be. Referring to FIG. 10F, each of downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 in sector 1 906 and downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 in sector 2 908 are separate HS- that may be monitored by UE 902. Assume that it carries a DSCH. In this case, four (4) separate transport blocks are four HS- onto different carriers or frequencies (ie DL_F1 and DL_F2 in sector 1 906 and also DL_F1 and DL_F2 in sector 2 908). Sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 may be delivered to the UE 902 via DSCHs. As shown in FIG. 10F, since each of sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 supports F1, and because each of sectors 1 and 2 906, 908 are in the active set for anchor carrier UL_F1, Each of sectors 1 and 2 906 and 908 may monitor and receive signals from UE 902 transmitted on an uplink anchor carrier (which may be UL_F1 or UL_F2).

In FIG. 10G, a communication system 1000e in accordance with an implementation of the method of FIG. 9B is illustrated, whereby serving sector 1 906 communicates with UE 902 over a number of downlink carriers (ie, DL_F1 and DL_F1). Communicating, serving sector 2 908 also communicates with UE 902 via a number of downlink carriers (ie, DL_F1 and DL_F2), and provides two ups to provide feedback for the carrier group to UE 902. Link carriers (ie, UL_F1 and UL_F2) are allocated. The example of FIG. 10G illustrates that FIG. 10F provides two uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 to the UE 902 instead of a single uplink carrier UL_F1 from FIG. 10F, thereby providing two for the UE 902. It is similar to the example described above with respect to FIG. 10F except that it generates separate carrier groups and active sets. Thus, the two uplink carriers UL_F1 and UL_F2 allow the UE 902 to control two separate carrier groups separately, as described above with respect to FIG. 9B. For example, uplink carrier UL_F1 may provide feedback associated with a first carrier group comprising at least downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 on sector 1 906, and uplink carrier UL_F2 may be on sector 2 908. Provide feedback associated with a second carrier group that includes at least downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2. Alternatively, feedback for both carrier groups may be provided via a single anchor carrier UL_F1 or UL_F2 as discussed above. Additional description of FIG. 10G will be omitted for simplicity due to its similarity to FIG. 10F.

While the above-mentioned aspects of the innovation of the present invention relate to two separate carriers that can be supported by two sectors, other aspects of the innovation of the present invention are (i) more than two carrier frequencies F3, F4, etc.) and / or more than two sectors simultaneously supporting the UE 902. For example, if the UE 902 enters a handover area where service may be provided from three different sectors, the UE 902 may be in the carrier group (s) associated with the downlink carriers in each of the three sectors. Can potentially be synchronized. In addition, downlink carriers (DL_F1, DL_F2, etc.) assigned to the UE 902 are adjacent carriers in the same frequency band as in FIG. 10A (thus DL_F1 is from sectors 1 and 2 906, 908, etc.). Supported) and / or non-contiguous carriers in different frequency bands.

For example, assume that there are two (2) downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 supported by two serving sectors 1 and 2 906, 908, respectively. In this case, sector 1 906 may be a 'primary' serving cell for DL_F1, a secondary serving cell for DL_F2, sector 2 908 may be a 'primary' serving cell for DL_F2, It may be a secondary serving cell for DL_F1. In another example, assume that there are two (2) downlink carriers DL_F1 and DL_F2 distributed between the sectors 1-4. In this case, sector 1 906 may be the primary serving cell for DL_F1, sector 2 908 may be the secondary serving cell for DL_F1, sector 3 may be the primary serving cell for DL_F2, and sector 4 may be a secondary serving cell for DL_F2.

Also, although not explicitly discussed in the description of the example versions above, it will be appreciated that the HS-DPCCH power offset may need to be boosted to be decodable in multiple cells. Similarly, uplink pilot SINR set points may also need to be boosted. The amount of boosting may be relatively small if the carrier group is properly selected.

In addition, several improvements can be implemented on higher-layers to improve performance. For example, the UE 902 can set up multiple MAC-ehs entities, one MAC-ehs entity for each HS serving cell. Multiple MAC-ehs may be at the same location or not at the same location, or may be on one or multiple frequencies. In this case, out of order transfers between MAC-ehs flows may occur. Out of order delivery issues between MAC-ehs flows may be reduced through RLC layer modifications and / or PDCP-based approaches.

Referring to FIG. 11A, a system 1100 for wireless communication, and more particularly, for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors is illustrated. For example, system 110 may reside at least partially within user equipment capable of over-the-air communication, such as user equipment (FIG. 1). It is to be appreciated that system 1100 is represented as including functional blocks, and that the functional blocks can be functional blocks that represent functions implemented by a computing platform, processor, software, or a combination thereof (eg, firmware). do. System 1100 includes a logical grouping 1102 of electrical components that can act in conjunction. For example, logical grouping 1102 can include an electrical component 1104 for receiving data from a first serving cell on a first downlink carrier, at user equipment. In addition, the logical grouping 1102 may include an electrical component 1106 at the user equipment for receiving data on a second downlink carrier from a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell. Also, in an exemplary aspect, the logical grouping 1102 may, by user equipment, provide an electrical component 1108 for transmitting channel feedback to at least one of a first serving cell and a second serving cell onto a first uplink carrier. It may include. Additionally, system 1100 can include a memory 1120 that retains instructions for executing functions associated with electrical components 1104-1108. While shown as being external to memory 1120, it should be understood that one or more of electrical components 1104-1108 can exist within memory 1120.

Referring to FIG. 11B, a system 1150 is illustrated for wireless communication, and in more detail, HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. For example, system 1150 can reside at least partially within a network device for wireless access, such as RAN 102 (FIG. 1). It is to be appreciated that system 1150 is represented as including functional blocks, and that the functional blocks can be functional blocks that represent functions implemented by a computing platform, processor, software, or a combination thereof (eg, firmware). do. System 1150 includes a logical grouping 1152 of electrical components that can act in conjunction. For example, the logical group 1152 may include an electrical component 1154 for assigning, by the RNC, portions of data for transmission to user equipment to the first serving cell and the second serving cell. In addition, the logical group 1152 may include an electrical component 1156 for transmitting, by the first serving cell, data to the user equipment on the first downlink carrier. In addition, the logical group 1152 may include an electrical component 1158 for transmitting data to user equipment on a second downlink carrier by a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell. In an exemplary additional example, the logical group 1152 is configured by an RNC to provide an electrical component for receiving channel feedback from user equipment on a first uplink carrier via at least one of a first serving cell and a second serving cell. 1160). Additionally, system 1150 can include a memory 1170 that retains instructions for executing functions associated with electrical components 1154-1160. While shown as being external to memory 1170, it is to be understood that one or more of electrical components 1154-1160 can exist within memory 1170.

According to various aspects of the present invention, an element or any portion of an element or any combination of elements may be implemented with a “processing system” that includes one or more processors. Examples of processors include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gated logic, discrete hardware circuitry. And other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functions described throughout the invention. One or more processors in the processing system may execute the software. Software, whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language or others, instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software modules Should be construed broadly to mean applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, and the like. The software may reside on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media can be non-transitory computer-readable media. Non-transitory computer-readable media may include, for example, magnetic storage devices (eg, hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic strips), optical discs (eg, compact discs (CDs), digital versatile discs (DVDs)). , Smart card, flash memory device (e.g. card, stick, key drive), random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), registers, removable disks, and any other suitable medium for storing software and / or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. The computer-readable medium may also include, for example, a carrier wave, a transmission line, and any other suitable medium for transmitting software and / or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. The computer-readable medium may reside within a processing system, external to the processing system, or distributed across a number of entities including the processing system. The computer-readable medium may be embodied in a computer-program product. By way of example, the computer-program product may include a computer-readable medium in the packaging materials. Those skilled in the art will recognize how best to implement the described functionality presented throughout the present invention, depending on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the overall system.

It should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed is an illustration of exemplary processes. Based upon design preferences, it should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods may be rearranged. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in an exemplary order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented, unless stated otherwise herein.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Accordingly, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects set forth herein, but are to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the language of the claims, and reference to a singular element is "one and only one" unless specifically stated so. It is not intended to mean, but rather to mean "one or more". Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term "part" refers to one or more. The phrase referring to "at least one of the list of items" refers to any combination of the items including a single member. By way of example, “at least one of a, b or c” means a; b; c; a and b; a and c; b and c; And a, b, and c. All functional and structural equivalents to elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure, known to those skilled in the art or later known, are intended to be expressly incorporated herein by reference and to be incorporated by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. Element is expressly referred to using the phrase "means for ", or, in the case of a method claim, unless the element is referred to using the phrase" for step " It should not be construed under the provision.

Claims (15)

An apparatus for receiving data with High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) from two independent cells or sectors,
At user equipment, means for receiving data from a first serving cell onto a first downlink carrier; And
Means for receiving, at the user equipment, data on a second downlink carrier from a second serving cell independent from the first serving cell,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. The method of claim 1,
At the user equipment, a first receiver for receiving data from the first serving cell onto the first downlink carrier; And
And at the user equipment, a second receiver for receiving data on the second downlink carrier from the second serving cell independent of the first serving cell,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the first serving cell and the second serving cell are selected by a Radio Network Controller (RNC) from an active set based on a measurement report by the user equipment,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. 3. The method of claim 2,
Further comprising, by the user equipment, a first transmitter for sending channel feedback onto at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell on a first uplink carrier,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. 5. The method of claim 4,
The first receiver also monitors a first High Speed Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH) transmitted by the first serving cell for the first downlink carrier,
The second receiver also monitors a second HS-SCCH transmitted by the second serving cell for the second downlink carrier,
The apparatus is configured to generate a channel feedback signal comprising one channel on the first uplink carrier including channel feedback including High Speed Downlink Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH) information based at least in part on the first HS-SCCH and the second HS-SCCH. Further comprising an encoder for encoding into a word,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. The method of claim 5, wherein
The apparatus further comprises, by the user equipment, a second transmitter for transmitting data onto a second uplink carrier to at least one of the first serving cell and the second serving cell,
Wherein the first uplink carrier comprises an anchor carrier,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. 5. The method of claim 4,
At least one of the first receiver and the second receiver also receives a first assignment of the first downlink carrier and the first uplink carrier for a first carrier group, and the second for the second carrier group. Receive a second allocation of the downlink carrier and the second uplink carrier,
The first transmitter also sends, by the user equipment, channel feedback on the first uplink carrier to the first serving cell,
The apparatus further includes a second transmitter for transmitting, by the user equipment, channel feedback on a second uplink carrier to the second serving cell,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. The method of claim 7, wherein
At least one of the first receiver and the second receiver also determines a channel feedback for the selected carrier group by monitoring a High Speed Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH) for each downlink carrier assigned to the selected carrier group. doing,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. The method of claim 8,
At least one of the first receiver and the second receiver also has mobility between serving cells for the selected carrier group in response to channel quality being below a threshold of either the first downlink carrier or the second downlink carrier. receiving triggering of mobility,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. 5. The method of claim 4,
At least one of the first receiver and the second receiver also has mobility between serving cells in response to the channel quality being below a threshold of a selected one of the first downlink carrier and the second downlink carrier designated as anchor carriers. To receive the triggering of,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. 11. The method of claim 10,
At least one of the first receiver and the second receiver also measures channel quality using a compression mode of a third downlink carrier transmitted by a new cell to facilitate updating of an active set of neighboring cells and sectors. doing,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. 5. The method of claim 4,
At least one of the first receiver and the second receiver is further configured to receive triggering of mobility between serving cells in response to the channel quality being below a threshold of either one of the first downlink carrier and the second downlink carrier. ,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the first serving cell comprises a first serving sector and the second serving cell comprises a second serving sector,
An apparatus for receiving data with HSDPA from two independent cells or sectors. An apparatus for transmitting data from two independent cells or sectors to a high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA),
Means for assigning, by a Radio Network Controller (RNC), portions of data for transmission to user equipment to a first serving cell and a second serving cell;
Means for transmitting, by the first serving cell, data to the user equipment on a first downlink carrier; And
Means for transmitting, by the second serving cell independent of the first serving cell, data to the user equipment on a second downlink carrier;
An apparatus for transmitting data from two independent cells or sectors to an HSDPA. 15. The method of claim 14,
The RNC for allocating portions of data for transmission to the user equipment to the first serving cell and the second serving cell;
The first serving cell for transmitting data to the user equipment on the first downlink carrier; And
The second serving cell independent from the first serving cell for transmitting data to the user equipment on the second downlink carrier,
An apparatus for transmitting data from two independent cells or sectors to an HSDPA.

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