WO2012022370A2 - Planification de porteuses de composantes - Google Patents

Planification de porteuses de composantes Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2012022370A2
WO2012022370A2 PCT/EP2010/061889 EP2010061889W WO2012022370A2 WO 2012022370 A2 WO2012022370 A2 WO 2012022370A2 EP 2010061889 W EP2010061889 W EP 2010061889W WO 2012022370 A2 WO2012022370 A2 WO 2012022370A2
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WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
scheduling
empty portion
retuning
frequency module
data
Prior art date
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PCT/EP2010/061889
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English (en)
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WO2012022370A3 (fr
Inventor
Frank Frederiksen
Daniela Laselva
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Nokia Siemens Networks Oy
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Application filed by Nokia Siemens Networks Oy filed Critical Nokia Siemens Networks Oy
Priority to PCT/EP2010/061889 priority Critical patent/WO2012022370A2/fr
Publication of WO2012022370A2 publication Critical patent/WO2012022370A2/fr
Publication of WO2012022370A3 publication Critical patent/WO2012022370A3/fr

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W72/00—Local resource management
    • H04W72/12—Wireless traffic scheduling
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W24/00—Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
    • H04W24/10—Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports

Definitions

  • the invention relates to carrier aggregation, and in particu ⁇ lar to scheduling component carriers.
  • a communication system can be seen as a facility that enables communication sessions between two or more entities such as user terminals, base stations and/or other nodes by providing carriers between the various entities involved in the commu- nications path.
  • a communication system can be provided for example by means of a communication network and one or more compatible communication devices.
  • the communications may com ⁇ prise, for example, communication of data for carrying commu ⁇ nications such as voice, electronic mail (email) , text mes- sage, multimedia and/or content data and so on.
  • Non-limiting examples of services provided include two-way or multi-way calls, data communication or multimedia services and access to a data network system, such as the Internet.
  • wireless communication system at least a part of commu ⁇ nications between at least two stations occurs over a wire ⁇ less link.
  • wireless systems include public land mobile networks (PLMN) , satellite based communication systems and different wireless local networks, for example wireless local area networks (WLAN) .
  • PLMN public land mobile networks
  • WLAN wireless local area networks
  • the wireless systems can typi ⁇ cally be divided into cells, and are therefore often referred to as cellular systems.
  • a user can access the communication system by means of an ap-litiste communication device or terminal.
  • a communication device of a user is often referred to as user equipment (UE) or mobile station (MS) .
  • UE user equipment
  • MS mobile station
  • a communication device is provided with an appropriate signal receiving and transmitting appara ⁇ tus for enabling communications, for example enabling access to a communication network or communications directly with other users.
  • the communication device may access a carrier provided by a station, for example a base station of a cell, and transmit and/or receive communications on the carrier.
  • the communication system and associated devices typically op ⁇ erate in accordance with a given standard or specification which sets out what the various entities associated with the system are permitted to do and how that should be achieved.
  • LTE long-term evolution
  • UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommu ⁇ nications System
  • 3GPP 3 rd Generation Partnership Project
  • the various development stages of the 3GPP LTE speci ⁇ fications are referred to as releases, for example Release 10.
  • the aim of the standardization is to achieve a communica ⁇ tion system with, inter alia, reduced latency, higher user data rates, improved system capacity and coverage, and re ⁇ tiled cost for the operator.
  • LTE-A LTE-Advanced
  • LTE-A LTE-Advanced
  • the LTE-Advanced aims to provide further enhanced services by means of even higher data rates and lower latency with reduced cost .
  • a feature of the LTE-Advanced is that it is capable of pro ⁇ viding carrier aggregation.
  • carrier aggregation a plurality of carriers are aggregated to increase bandwidth and ex ⁇ perienced data rate.
  • Carrier aggregation comprises aggregat- ing a plurality of component carriers into a composite car ⁇ rier .
  • two or more component carriers can be aggre- gated in order to support wider transmission bandwidths, such as up to 100MHz, and/or for spectrum refarming. It is possible to configure a user equipment (UE) to transmit and / or receive data using aggregation of a number of component carriers terminating / originating from the same base station, for example a LTE eNode B (eNB) . Different bandwidths may be employed in the uplink (UL) and the downlink (DL) .
  • UE user equipment
  • eNB LTE eNode B
  • Different bandwidths may be employed in the uplink (UL) and the downlink (DL) .
  • LTE Release 10 there can be a continuous carrier aggrega ⁇ tion where the neighbouring component carriers are aggregated or non-continuous carrier aggregation where the component carriers being aggregated are located on disjoint bands, at least in the downlink direction.
  • User equipment capable of carrier aggregation in LTE-A may support three different states for each of the uplink and downlink component carriers that the user equipment supports.
  • a first state is a non-configured carrier mode wherein the user equipment is not configured for monitoring any data or control channels, which are not capable of receiving / trans- mitting data on one or more component carriers.
  • Those compo ⁇ nent carriers are also defined as non-configured for that user equipment. Measurements of the quality may still take place on the non-configured carriers according to the meas ⁇ urement configuration that the eNB applies.
  • a second state is a configured mode in which one or more com ⁇ ponent carriers are configured but not activated for the user equipment and the user equipment is configured for operation wherein uplink control signalling resources have been re- served for the user equipment and the user equipment is ready for activation. Measurements on the quality of the carrier can happen as for the non-configured carrier but the measurements can occur more frequently.
  • a third state is a configured and activated carrier mode wherein the user equipment is able to receive and transmit data on all the activated component carriers.
  • the current 3GPP decision is that each user equipment (UE) when in con- nected mode will have a primary carrier (denoted the primary cell - or Pcell) , and potentially a set of secondary cells (Scells) , which may be activated or deactivated by the layer 2 Medium Access Control (MAC) activation via a MAC-Control Element (MAC-CE) .
  • the change of state from a non-configured carrier mode to a configured mode in which the carrier is not activated may be carried out by layer 3 (L3) radio resource control signalling.
  • L3 layer 3
  • a user equipment performing carrier aggregation over continu- ous frequency carriers may be assumed to be equipped with only one radio frequency (RF) front-end. That is, the user equipment can receive multiple P/SCells using a single radio frequency (RF) module. This can pose some issues on how the user equipment may adjust its reception bandwidth.
  • RF radio frequency
  • a first reason is that an inter-carrier meas ⁇ urement occurs either on a deactivated SCell and / or non- configured SCell.
  • the second reason is the activation or de- activation transition of a component carrier which is served by the RF module.
  • Inter-carrier measurements comprise received signal quality measures such as received signal reference power (RSRP) and received signal reference quality (RSRQ) , which the UE has to perform for handover preparation. That is the UE checks the signal quality on other portions of the spectrum which can be used by the UE when currently used frequency bands degrade or are no longer sufficient for carrying all data requests. In fact, the user equipment would require the retuning of its RF module to the measurement bandwidth.
  • RSRP received signal reference power
  • RSRQ received signal reference quality
  • a UE changes the filter settings or shifts the frequency of the local oscillator. Those opera ⁇ tions compromise the received signal quality over the whole band served by this RF module and will therefore lead to data loss on the downlink in case a data transmission is ongoing on the affected band during the retuning phase of the corre- sponding RF module.
  • This effect of RF retuning on the UE can be referred to as "glitch", that is an interruption of reli ⁇ able data reception operations on the affected band.
  • the UE may employ independent RF modules in the case of car- rier aggregation over non-continuous .bands, and any RF re ⁇ tuning related to inter-carrier frequency measurements exe ⁇ cuted by an RF module may not cause glitches on the bands or component carriers served by other RF modules.
  • Embodiments of the invention aim to address one or several of the above issues.
  • a method comprising: determining the scheduling of data for sending data over a communications network on one or more aggregated carriers; determining the scheduling of at least one empty portion and the at least one empty portion being for retuning a radio frequency module at a receiver; generating a data frame comprising at least one empty portion for sending over the communications network on the basis of the scheduling of the data and the scheduling of the at least one empty portion; and sending the data frame to the receiver.
  • the method comprises evaluating capability infor ⁇ mation for retuning a radio frequency module at said receiver and / or evaluating status information of said radio fre ⁇ quency module of said receiver before determining the sched- uling of the at least one empty portion and before determin ⁇ ing the scheduling of the retuning of said frequency module.
  • said retuning is required for one of inter- frequency measurement in the frequency range of said radio frequency module or activation of at least one component car- rier served by said radio frequency module or deactivation of at least one component carrier served by said radio frequency module, such that said retuning is performed during one of said at least one empty portion.
  • the method comprises receiving capability informa ⁇ tion for returning a radio frequency module at said receiver and / or receiving status information of said radio frequency module from said receiver.
  • the capability infor- mation is received via a wireless link.
  • the scheduling of the at least one empty portion comprises determining of scheduling rules and / or scheduling parameters for the occurrence of the at least one empty por- tion.
  • the scheduling rules and / or scheduling parame ⁇ ters are transmitted to the receiver via a wireless link be ⁇ fore the transmission of the first of said at least one empty portion to said receiver is initiated.
  • the determining of the scheduling rules and / or the scheduling parameters of the at least one empty portion comprises determining one or more of the frequency, the off- set within a data frame and the size of the at least one empty portion wherein the size of the at least one empty por ⁇ tion along the time domain need not be an integer multiple of the scheduling period.
  • the method is according to Long-Term Evolution Ad ⁇ vanced. More preferably wherein the frequency of the at least one empty portion is determined by a multiple of a sys ⁇ tem frame number.
  • the offset within a ra ⁇ dio frame is determined by a slot number and the size of the at least one empty portion along the time domain is determined by a multiple of the length of a symbol for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.
  • the scheduling of the data and the at least one empty portion ensures that a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request protocol in the receiver does not require the detection of acknowledgement and / or non-acknowledgement indicators in one of the at least one empty portion.
  • the scheduling of the at least one empty portion is based on predetermined scheduling rules and / or predeter ⁇ mined scheduling parameters. More preferably the determining the scheduling of the at least one empty portions comprises determining one or more of the frequency and the size of the at least one empty portion. The method may comprises sending the scheduling rules and / or the scheduling parameters to the receiver before determining the scheduling of the at least one empty portion.
  • the aggregated carriers are continuous carriers.
  • the predetermined sched ⁇ uling rules and / or predetermined scheduling parameters are broadcast by radio resource signalling to the receiver.
  • the predetermined scheduling parameters for scheduling the at least one empty portion comprise one or more of multi- pie of a system frame number, slot number and size of the empty portion.
  • an apparatus comprising: at least one transceiver; and at least one processor; and
  • At least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: determine the scheduling of data for sending data over a communications network on one or more aggregated carriers; determine the scheduling of at least one empty portion and the at least one empty portion being for retuning a radio frequency module at a receiver; generate a data frame comprising at least one empty portion for sending over the communications network on the basis of the scheduling of the data and the scheduling of the at least one empty portion; and send the data frame to the receiver.
  • the processor is configured to evaluate capability information for retuning a radio frequency module at said re ⁇ DCver and / or to evaluate status information of said radio frequency module of said receiver before determining the scheduling of the at least one empty portion and before de ⁇ termining the scheduling of the retuning of said frequency module .
  • said retuning is required for one of inter- frequency measurement in the frequency range of said radio frequency module or activation of at least one component car ⁇ rier served by said radio frequency module or deactivation of at least one component carrier served by said radio frequency module, such that said retuning is performed during one of said at least one empty portion.
  • the processor is configured to cause the appara ⁇ tus, using the transceiver, to receive capability information for retuning a radio frequency module at said receiver and / or to receive status information of said radio frequency mod ⁇ ule from said receiver via a wireless link.
  • the processor is configured when performing the scheduling of the at least one empty portion to cause the ap- paratus to determine the scheduling rules and / or scheduling parameters for the occurrence of the at least one empty por ⁇ tion .
  • the processor is configured to transmit the scheduling rules and / or scheduling parameters to the receiver via a wireless link before it initiates the transmission of the first of said at least one empty portion to said re- DCver.
  • the processor is configured to determine one or more of the frequency, the offset within a data frame and the size of the at least one empty portion wherein the size of the at least one empty portion along the time domain need not be an integer multiple of the scheduling period.
  • Preferably is configured to determine the frequency of the at least one empty portion by a multiple of a system frame num- ber and to determine the offset within a radio frame by a slot number and to determine the size of the at least one empty portion along the time domain by a multiple of the length of a symbol for orthogonal frequency division multi ⁇ plexing .
  • the processor is configured to schedule the data and the at least one empty portion such that a Hybrid Auto ⁇ matic Repeat Request protocol in the receiver does not require the detection of acknowledgement and / or non- acknowledgement indicators in one of the at least one empty portion .
  • Carrier aggregation may be provided in accordance with the specifications by the third generation partnership project (3GPP) .
  • 3GPP third generation partnership project
  • a base station comprising the apparatus.
  • the base station is an eNode B.
  • a method comprising determining the scheduling of data for receiving data over a communications network on one or more aggregated carriers; determining the scheduling of at least one empty portion and the at least one empty portion being for retuning a radio frequency module at a receiver; and receiving a data frame comprising at least one empty portion over the commu ⁇ nications network on the basis of the scheduling of the data and the scheduling of the at least one empty portion.
  • the method comprises detecting the data in the data frame.
  • the method comprises evaluating scheduling rules and / or the scheduling parameters of the at least one empty portion for determining the at least one empty portion in a data frame and retuning of a radio frequency module at the receiver. More preferably said retuning is required for one of inter-frequency measurement in the frequency range of said radio frequency module or activation of at least one compo ⁇ nent carrier served by said radio frequency module or deacti ⁇ vation of at least one component carrier served by said radio frequency module, such that said retuning is performed during one of said at least one empty portion.
  • the method comprises transmitting capability in ⁇ formation for retuning a radio frequency module at said re ⁇ DCver and / or transmitting status information of said radio frequency module from said receiver via a wireless link to a central network node.
  • the receiving of scheduling rules and / or sched ⁇ uling parameters for the occurrence of the at least one empty portion in the receiver from a central network node via a wireless link.
  • the evaluating of the scheduling rules and / or the scheduling parameters of the at least one empty portion comprises determining one or more of the frequency, the off ⁇ set within a data frame and the size of the at least one empty portion. More preferably wherein the size of the at least one empty portion along the time domain need not be an integer multiple of the scheduling period.
  • the frequency of the at least one empty portion is determined by a multiple of a system frame number and the offset within a radio frame is determined by a slot number and the size of the at least one empty portion along the time domain is determined by a multiple of the length of a symbol for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.
  • fractional part of an empty portion is trans- parent to the scheduling algorithm executed in said central network node.
  • fractional part of an empty por ⁇ tion is inserted at the end of a subframe preceding a completely empty subframe when the length of the empty portion exceeds one subframe.
  • the scheduling retuning of said radio frequency module during next empty portion of sufficient length when the retuning is triggered by implicit component carrier re ⁇ lease is triggered by implicit component carrier re ⁇ lease .
  • the method comprises initiating retuning of the radio frequency module during the empty portion.
  • the scheduling of data comprises predetermined scheduling rules and / or predetermined scheduling parameters.
  • the method comprises receiving the predetermined schedul ⁇ ing rules and / or the predetermined scheduling parameters to a mobile station before determining the data scheduling.
  • the initiating the retuning of the radio frequency module is in response to an activation or a deactivation of a carrier associated with the radio frequency module.
  • the initiating the retuning of the radio frequency module is in response to performing inter-frequency measurements.
  • the method comprises scheduling different opera- tions during subsequent data frames comprises empty portions.
  • the method comprises scheduling retuning of radio frequency apparatus for a next empty portion when the retun ⁇ ing is triggered by implicit component carrier release.
  • the predetermined scheduling rules and / or predeter- mined scheduling parameters are received at the receiver via a broadcast by radio resource signalling.
  • an apparatus comprising: at least one transceiver; and at least one processor; and
  • At least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: determine the scheduling of data for receiving data over a communications network on one or more aggregated carriers; determine scheduling of at least one empty portion and the at least one empty portion being for retuning a radio frequency module at the apparatus;
  • the processor is configured to evaluate scheduling rules and / or the scheduling parameters of the at least one empty portion, to determine the at least one empty portion in a data frame and to retune of a radio frequency module at the apparatus.
  • said retuning is required for one of inter-frequency measurement in the frequency range of said radio frequency module or activation of at least one compo ⁇ nent carrier served by said radio frequency module or deacti ⁇ vation of at least one component carrier served by said radio frequency module, such that said retuning is performed during one of said at least one empty portion.
  • the processor is configured, using the trans ⁇ DCver, to transmit capability information for retuning a ra- dio frequency module at said apparatus and / or transmitting status information of said radio frequency module from said apparatus via a wireless link to a central network node.
  • the processor is configured, using the trans- ceiver, to receive scheduling rules and / or scheduling pa ⁇ rameters for the occurrence of the at least one empty portion from a central network node via a wireless link.
  • the processor when evaluating the scheduling rules and / or the scheduling parameters of the at least one empty portion is configured to determine one or more of the frequency, the offset within a data frame and the size of the at least one empty portion wherein the size of the at least one empty portion along the time domain need not be an integer multiple of the scheduling period.
  • the processor is configured to determine the fre ⁇ quency of the at least one empty portion as a multiple of a system frame number and to determine the offset within a ra- dio frame by a slot number and to determine the size of the at least one empty portion along the time domain by a multi ⁇ ple of the length of a symbol for orthogonal frequency divi ⁇ sion multiplexing.
  • the processor is configured to insert the fractional part of an empty portion transparently to the schedul ⁇ ing algorithm executed in said central network node.
  • the processor is configured to insert the fractional part of an empty portion at the end of a subframe preceding a completely empty subframe when the length of the empty por ⁇ tion exceeds one subframe.
  • the processor is configured to schedule retuning of said radio frequency module during next empty portion of sufficient length when the retuning is triggered by implicit component carrier release.
  • a computer program comprising program code means adapted to perform the method may also be provided.
  • an apparatus comprising: means for determining scheduling of data for sending data over a communications network on one or more aggregated carriers;
  • an apparatus comprising: means for determining scheduling of data for receiving data over a communications network on one or more aggregated carriers;
  • Figure 1 shows an example of a communication system in which the embodiments of the invention may be implemented
  • Figure 2 shows an example of a communication device
  • Figure 3 shows an example of aggregated component carriers
  • Figures 4 and 5 illustrate flow diagrams of a method according to some embodiments
  • Figures 6 and 7 illustrate flow diagrams of a method according to some other embodiments
  • Figure 8 shows a schematic diagram of carrier aggregation scheduling according to some embodiments.
  • the following description describes methods and apparatus for scheduling component carriers.
  • Certain exemplifying embodi ⁇ ments are explained with reference to wireless or mobile com ⁇ munication systems serving mobile communication devices. Be- fore explaining in detail the certain exemplifying embodi ⁇ ments, certain general principles of a wireless communication system and mobile communication devices are briefly explained with reference to Figures 1 and 2 to assist in understanding the technology underlying the described examples.
  • a communication device can be used for accessing various ser ⁇ vices and/or applications provided via a communication sys ⁇ tem.
  • the access is provided via a wireless access interface between mobile communication devices 1 and an appropriate access system 10.
  • a mobile device or mobile station 1 can typically access wirelessly a communication system via at least one base sta ⁇ tion 12 or similar wireless transmitter and/or receiver node of the access system.
  • a base station site typically provides one or more cells of a cellular system. In the figure 1 exam ⁇ ple the base station 12 is configured to provide a cell, but could provide, for example, three sectors, each sector pro ⁇ viding a cell.
  • Each mobile station 1 and base station may have one or more radio channels open at the same time and may receive signals from more than one source.
  • a base station is typically controlled by at least one appro ⁇ priate controller so as to enable operation thereof and man ⁇ agement of mobile communication devices in communication with the base station.
  • the control entity can be interconnected with other control entities.
  • the controller is shown to be provided by block 13.
  • An appropriate controller apparatus may comprise at least one memory, at least one data processing unit and an input/output interface.
  • the controller may be provided with memory capacity and at least one data processor 14. It shall be understood that the control functions may be distributed between a plurality of controller units.
  • the controller apparatus for the base station may be configured to execute an appropriate software code to provide the control functions as explained below in more detail.
  • the base station node 12 is connected to a data network 20 via an appropriate gateway 15.
  • a gateway function between the access system and another network such as a packet data network may be provided by means of any appropriate gateway node, for example a packet data gateway and/or an access gateway.
  • a communication system may thus be provided by one or more interconnect networks and the elements thereof, and one or more gateway nodes may be provided for interconnecting various networks.
  • the base station node is an eNode B.
  • a communication device can be used for accessing various ser- vices and/or applications.
  • the communication devices can access the communication system based on various access techniques, such as code division multiple access (CDMA) , or wideband CDMA (WCDMA) or orthogonal frequency-division multiple Access (OFDMA) . Both techniques are used by communication systems based on the third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications. Other examples include time division multiple access (TDMA) , frequency division multiple access (FDMA) , space division multiple access (SDMA) and so on.
  • TDMA time division multiple access
  • FDMA frequency division multiple access
  • SDMA space division multiple access
  • E-UTRAN Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
  • Non-limiting examples of appropriate access nodes are a base station of a cellular system, for example what is known as NodeB or enhanced NodeB (eNB) referred to in 3GPP specifica ⁇ tions.
  • the eNBs may provide E-UTRAN features such as user plane Radio Link Control/Medium Access Control/Physical layer protocol (RLC/MAC/PHY) and control plane Radio Resource Con- trol (RRC) protocol terminations towards mobile communication devices.
  • RLC/MAC/PHY Radio Link Control/Medium Access Control/Physical layer protocol
  • RRC Radio Resource Con- trol
  • Other examples include base stations of systems that are based on technologies such as wireless local area network (WLAN) and/or WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) .
  • WLAN wireless local area network
  • WiMax Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
  • FIG. 2 shows a schematic, partially sectioned view of a communication device 1 that can be used for communication on an aggregated carrier 11 comprising a plurality of component carriers with at least one other wireless station.
  • An appro- priate mobile communication device may be provided by any de ⁇ vice capable of sending and receiving radio signals.
  • Non- limiting examples include a mobile station (MS) or user equipment (UE) such as a mobile phone or smart phone, a port ⁇ able computer provided with a wireless interface card or other wireless interface facility, personal data assistant (PDA) provided with wireless communication capabilities, or any combinations of these or the like.
  • MS mobile station
  • UE user equipment
  • PDA personal data assistant
  • a mobile communication device or mobile station may be used, for example, for voice and video calls, for accessing service applications provided via a data network.
  • the mobile station 1 may receive signals via appropriate apparatus for receiving and transmitting radio signals on wireless carriers, or radio bearers.
  • a transceiver is designated schemati- cally by block 7.
  • the transceiver may be provided for example by means of a radio part and associated antenna arrangement.
  • the transceiver can comprise several components or RF modules and each of these RF modules can be equipped with dedicated hardware means to perform the RF related processing for re- ceiving or transmitting data on a portion of the RF spectrum independently from the other RF modules.
  • the antenna arrange ⁇ ment may be arranged internally or externally to the mobile station 1.
  • a mobile station 1 is also typically provided with at least one data processing entity 3, at least one mem ⁇ ory 4 and other possible components 9 for use in tasks it is designed to perform.
  • the data processing, storage and other entities can be provided on an appropriate circuit board and/or in chipsets. This feature is denoted by reference 6.
  • the user may control the operation of the mobile device by means of a suitable user interface such as key pad 2, voice commands, touch sensitive screen or pad, combinations thereof or the like.
  • a display 5, a speaker and a microphone are also typically provided.
  • a mobile device may comprise appropriate connectors (either wired or wireless) to other devices and/or for connecting external accessories, for exam ⁇ ple hands-free equipment, thereto.
  • 3GPP LTE Release 8 can provide only one carrier and compatible terminals are assumed to be served by a stand-alone component carrier.
  • 3GPP LTE- Advanced terminals adapted for operation in accordance with Release 10 and upwards can receive and/or transmit simultane ⁇ ously on multiple aggregated component carriers in the same transmission time interval (TTI) . That is, two or more car ⁇ riers, referred to herein as component carriers can be aggre ⁇ gated such that a mobile station may simultaneously communi- cate on one or multiple component carriers depending on its capabilities .
  • TTI transmission time interval
  • an LTE-Advanced mobile station with reception capability beyond 20 MHz can simultaneously receive on multi- pie 20 MHz component carriers.
  • a mobile station 1 and a base station 12 are configured to perform carrier aggregation.
  • the carrier aggregation can be continuous carrier aggregation wherein the neighbouring component carriers are aggregated. Additionally or alternatively the carrier aggregation can be non- continuous where the component carriers are aggregated which are not neighbouring component carriers and are located on disjoint bands.
  • the mobile station 1 com ⁇ prises a single RF module for sending and receiving data dur- ing carrier aggregation.
  • a single radio RF mod ⁇ ule can be used for sending and receiving data for continuous carrier aggregation on neighbouring carrier components.
  • the mobile station 1 comprises a num ⁇ ber of RF modules for sending and receiving data when carrier aggregation is used. For example, a number of RF modules can be used for sending and receiving data for non-continuous carrier aggregation for carrier components in separate dis ⁇ joint bands.
  • the mobile station 1 can support three different states for each of the uplink and downlink compo ⁇ nent carriers that the mobile station supports.
  • a first state is a non-configured carrier mode wherein the mobile station is not configured for monitoring any data or control chan- nels, that is, the mobile station is not capable of receiving / transmitting data on one or more component carriers.
  • Meas ⁇ urements of the signal quality may still take place on the non-configured carriers according to the measurement configu ⁇ ration that the eNB applies.
  • the processor 3 of the mobile station 1 is configured to initialise measurements according to the valid measurement configuration..
  • a second state is a configured mode in which one or more com- ponent carriers are configured but not activated for the user equipment and the user equipment is configured for operation wherein uplink control signalling resources have been re ⁇ served for the user equipment and the user equipment is ready for activation. Measurements of the received signal quality on the carrier can happen as for the non-configured carrier but can occur more frequently.
  • the mobile station 1 can change the state of a component carrier from the non- configured carrier state to a configured but not activated carrier state.
  • the processor 3 can initi- ate the change of state.
  • the processor 3 can initiate the change of state in response to receiving Radio Resource Con ⁇ trol (RRC) signalling on layer 3 from the base station 12.
  • RRC Radio Resource Con ⁇ trol
  • the mobile station 1 In the configured but not activated carrier state the mobile station 1 is configured for operation wherein uplink control signalling resources have been reserved for the mobile sta ⁇ tion 1 by the base station 12 and the mobile station is ready for activating a configured carrier.
  • the processor 3 is con ⁇ figured to initialise measurements of the received signal quality on the configured carrier, similar to the measure- ments carried out for the non-configured carrier. In some em ⁇ bodiments the processor 3 can initialise the measurements more frequently for a configured carrier than for the same carrier in the non-configured state.
  • the processor 3 may ini ⁇ tiate the activation of a configured carrier when the mobile station 1 has received a corresponding activation command form the base station 12.
  • the activation command may be con ⁇ veyed on layer 2 by means of a MAC-Control Element (MAC-CE) .
  • a third state is a configured and activated carrier mode wherein the mobile station is able to receive and transmit data on all the activated component carriers.
  • the current 3GPP decision is that each mobile when in connected mode will have a primary carrier (denoted the primary cell - or Pcell) , and potentially a set of secondary cells (Scells) , which may be activated or deactivated when the mobile station 1 has re ⁇ ceived a corresponding activation or deactivation command from the base station 12.
  • the activation or deactivation com- mand may be conveyed on layer 2 by means of a MAC-Control Element (MAC-CE) .
  • MAC-CE MAC-Control Element
  • the processor 3 can initiate the change of the state for a component carrier.
  • the mobile station 1 receives control channel allocation information on the physi ⁇ cal downlink control channel (PDCCH) on one or more of the activated component carriers.
  • the processor 3 can initiate sending and receiving data on the activated carriers.
  • the mobile station 1 sends data via at least one RF module in the transceiver 7 in an uplink direction on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and receives data via at least one RF module in the trans ⁇ DCver 7 in a downlink direction on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) .
  • PUSCH physical uplink shared channel
  • PDSCH physical downlink shared channel
  • the processor 3 of the mobile sta ⁇ tion 1 can initiate monitoring the link quality of an acti ⁇ vated component carrier with greater detail than in the other states. In this way the mobile station 1 can report the channel quality for wide band or narrow band measurements for activated component carriers to the base station 12.
  • Figures 4 and 5 illustrate flow diagrams of a method respectively carried out at a base station and a mo ⁇ bile station according to some embodiments.
  • a base station 12 may decide dynamically upon the allocation of chan ⁇ nel resources along the time, frequency and code domain to mobile stations 1 in the cell controlled by the base station 12.
  • the allocation of channel resources may be signalled via a control channel, like the PDCCH in LTE or LTE-A to the mo- bile stations 1 in the cell.
  • a mobile station 1 may use the allocated channel resources for transmitting / receiving data via the air interface to / from the base station 12.
  • the al ⁇ location of channel resources by a base station 12 is re ⁇ ferred to as scheduling and is accomplished by running proce- dures in the processor 14 which can perform a scheduling al ⁇ gorithm .
  • the scheduling algorithm may consider a plurality of con ⁇ straints or conditions or other suitable scheduling rules, like the channel quality or the required service quality of a connection.
  • Any scheduling decision that is any allocation of channel resources has a minimum area of validity along the frequency, time and code domain.
  • the validity range along the time domain is also known as the "scheduling period".
  • the scheduling period determines the temporal resolution of the scheduling algorithm. That is the minimum time which elapses between two updates of the allocated channel resources.
  • the base station 12 may signal the allocation of resources on the control channel via a so-called "scheduling grant" for each scheduling period and to each scheduled user, that is, a user which has been granted channel resources.
  • the signalling effort may be reduced when at least some of the scheduling decisions follow a predefined regular pattern which is agreed between the base station 12 and one or more of the affected mobile stations 1.
  • Inter-frequency measurements may typically be performed in regular intervals and radio frequency (RF) retuning of at least one RF module is therefore required in regular inter ⁇ vals.
  • RF radio frequency
  • the scheduling algorithm may consider the occurrence of regular inter- frequency measurements for the allocation of channel re ⁇ sources in order to avoid data losses due to glitches.
  • the scheaduling algorithm may therefore preferably not schedule data transmissions to a mobile station 1 in the frequency portion which is served by a certain RF module when this RF module is retuned for performing an inter-frequency measure ⁇ ment.
  • the scheduling algorithm may therefore incorporate empty portions in a data frame, that is, gaps with a certain offset from the begin of the data frame without data trans ⁇ mission or without at least dedicated data transmission to the mobile station in the frequency range affected by the re ⁇ tuning of the RF module and all RF retuning phases in the RF module required for inter-frequency measurements may be aligned with these empty portions, wherein the length of the data frame defines a basic period for the regular occurrence of the empty portions.
  • the length of the data frame may be specified as a multiple of a radio frame
  • the offset of the at least one empty portion within each data frame may be specified as a multiple of a slot
  • the size of the empty portion along the time domain may be specified as a multiple of the length of a symbol for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) .
  • the length of the data frame may for instance be 1 radio frame (slots 0, 1, 2, ... 19) and the offsets for the begin of the two empty portions may for instance be specified for slots 0 and 10 in each data frame.
  • Some of these empty portions may also be used for RF retuning required for activation or deactivation of component carri- ers, in that all RF retuning phases may preferably be aligned with one of the empty portions in the data frames.
  • Such a scheduling of regular empty portions constitutes an additional condition / rule which has to be considered in the scheduling algorithm and the regular occurrence of the empty portions must be known to the base stations as well as to the affected mobile station.
  • the mobile station 1 and the base station 12 comprise predefined scheduling rules.
  • the scheduling rules can be comprised in an algorithm which can be executed by the processors 14, 3 of the base station 12 and mobile station 1.
  • the processor 14 of the base station 12 determines that data is to be sent over the communications network, the processor 14 initiates determining the scheduling of data for sending data on one or more aggregated carriers as shown in step 402.
  • the processor 14 retrieves from memory 16 parameters for determining the scheduling of the data. In some em- bodiments the parameters and/or the scheduling rules are predetermined. In other embodiments the parameters and/or the scheduling rules are received from another network entity during operation of the base station 12. For example the other network entity can send the same scheduling rules and parameters to both the base station 12 and the mobile station 1.
  • the processor 14 can determine the data scheduling from the scheduling rules based on characteristics of the data and / or the signalling information. Once the processor 14 has determined the scheduling rules for the data, the processor 14 determines the scheduling of at least one empty portion in a data frame as shown in step 404.
  • the processor 14 then generates the data frame comprising at least one empty portion on the basis of the data scheduling as shown in step 406. In this way the processor 14 of the base station introduces gaps into the data frame wherein no data is transmitted by the base station 12 in a certain fre ⁇ quency range .
  • the processor 14 After the processor 14 has generated the data frame compris ⁇ ing at leat one empty portion, the processor 14 initiates sending the data frame in subsequent transmission time inter ⁇ vals (TTI) to the mobile station 1 as shown in step 408.
  • TTI transmission time inter ⁇ vals
  • the mobile station 1 comprises reciprocal scheduling rules and scheduling parameters or a part of those which can be stored in the memory 4 of the mobile station 1.
  • the proces ⁇ sor 3 of the mobile station 1 determines the data scheduling for sending data on one or more aggregated component carriers as shown in step 502.
  • the processor 3 determines the data scheduling of the data sent on the aggregated component car ⁇ riers by retrieving one or more scheduling rules and parame ⁇ ters from memory 4.
  • the scheduling rules and parameters retrieved by the processor 3 are the same as the scheduling rules and parameters used by the base station 12.
  • the scheduling rules and parameters are predetermined prior to operation of the mobile station 1.
  • the processor determines the scheduling of at least one empty portion of at least one data frame as shown in step 504.
  • the processor 3 determines that a TTI to be received com ⁇ prises at least a part of an empty portion on the basis of the data scheduling as shown in step 506. In this way, the processor 3 of the mobile station determines that there is a gap wherein no data will be received by the mobile station 1.
  • the processor 3 of the mobile station 1 initiates configuring the trans ⁇ DCver 7 of the mobile station 1 during the empty portion of the data frame as shown in step 508.
  • the configuring the transceiver 7 comprises retuning an RF module for performing measurements with the transceiver 7 after RF retuning and/or performing RF retuning for component carrier activation or deactivation. By performing the configuration during an empty portion of the data frame, no interruption in transmission and reception operations are generated due to the mobile station retuning the RF module. The RF retuning of an RF module may be performed without affecting the data transmission and reception operations on frequency bands served by other RF modules in the transceiver 7.
  • a mobile station for example a Rel'lO mobile station 1
  • Figures 6 and 7 illustrate the steps carried out for determining empty portions in a data frame for a simple case where the length of the data frame is X radio frames and only one empty portion in slot Y of the data frame is config ⁇ ured.
  • the configured length of the data frame is Z OFDM sym- bols.
  • the empty portions of data frames to be sent between the base station 12 and the mobile station 1 are determined by the scheduling algorithm
  • the scheduling algo- rithm determines the occurrence of empty portions in the data frames by determining scheduling parameters and / or schedul ⁇ ing rules.
  • the scheduling parameters and / or scheduling rules can be set at any time before operation of the base station 12 and the mobile station 1.
  • the parameters and the schedul ⁇ ing algorithm can be modified or set during operation of the mobile station 1 and the base station 12, so long as both the mobile station and the base station apply the same parameters and / or scheduling rules for determining the occurrence of empty portions in a data frame.
  • the parameters of the sched ⁇ uling algorithm are set as shown in step 602. The parameters can be stored in memory of the base station 12.
  • the determined scheduling parameters "X”, “Y” and “Z” for scheduling the empty portion in the data frame are set in step 602
  • the scheduling parameters ⁇ ", ⁇ " and “Z” for the empty portion can be values determined by the base station 12.
  • the base station can in some embodiments signal the scheduling parameters for each mobile station or groups of mobile stations on a wireless link.
  • Mobile stations can then receive the parameters and store them in memory for later use. For example, when a mobile station moves into range of a base station, the mobile sta ⁇ tion can receive new parameters for the length of the data frame and the occurrence of empty portions in the data frame.
  • the parameters can be the same for all mobile stations communicating with a particular base station.
  • the parameters can be different for each mobile station communicating with a particular base station.
  • the parameters are dif ⁇ ferent with respect to neighbouring base stations. In this way the occurrence of empty portions can vary for cell areas of different base stations.
  • the processor 14 of the base station 12 retrieves the scheduling parameters for the occurrence of empty portions from memory, the processor starts the scheduling algorithm for determining the data scheduling as shown in step 604.
  • the processor 14 determines the system frame number (SFN) of the next data frame to be processed as shown in 606.
  • the processor 14 deter- mines, as shown in step 608, when the SFN satisfies the fol ⁇ lowing condition (1) :
  • SFN is the system frame number
  • mod is the modulus op ⁇ eration
  • X is the length of the data frame for scheduling the empty portions.
  • the processor 14 determines the slot number of the frame as shown in step 610. Once the processor 14 determines the slot number, the processor 14 determines when the slot number satisfies condition (2) as shown in step 612:
  • Y is the determined offset parameter for the scheduling of the empty portion in a data frame.
  • the processor 14 determines which slot number of the fourth frame is to comprise the empty portion.
  • the processor 14 determines the slot number of the radio frame satisfies condition (2), the processor 14 generates a radio frame introducing an empty portion as shown in step 614.
  • the processor 14 introduces an empty portion of the data frame corresponding to Z number of orthogo- nal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.
  • the processor 14 then initiates sending the radio frame compris ⁇ ing the empty portion to the mobile station 1 as shown in step 616.
  • OFDM orthogo- nal frequency division multiplexing
  • FIG. 7 illustrates a reciprocal method performed by the mo ⁇ bile station 1 when receiving a data frame from the base sta ⁇ tion 12.
  • Steps 702, 704, 706, 708, 710, and 712 are similar to steps 602, 604, 606, 608, 610 and 612 discussed with re ⁇ spect to Figure 6.
  • the mobile station performs the same algorithm for detecting radio frames comprising an empty portion as the base station for scheduling and transmission of radio frames comprising an empty portion such that there is a common timing for the data frames between the base sta ⁇ tion and the mobile station.
  • the processor 3 of the mobile station determines that a radio frame is to be received comprising an empty portion as shown in step 714 and the mobile station can prepare to use the empty portion of the radio frame, if necessary.
  • Figure 8 illustrates a schematic diagram of carrier aggrega ⁇ tion scheduling according to some embodiments.
  • Figure 8 shows the empty portion in a radio frame in transmission time interval 2 (TTI 2 ) .
  • TTI 2 transmission time interval 2
  • Figure 8 is for illustrative purposes and in some embodiments the frequency domain allocations to dif ⁇ ferent mobile stations can differ from the different trans ⁇ mission time intervals. For example, in some embodiments, there can be different mobile stations scheduled on different frequency resources in consecutive transmission time inter- vals, contrary to the arrangement shown in figure 8.
  • the base station 12 and the mobile station 1 can have a common understanding of "time" such that retuning can occur without strict exchange of information between the base station 12 and the mobile station 1.
  • the processor 3 of the mobile station 1 in some embodiments can determine when to retune to carry out inter-frequency measurements.
  • a mobile station can have effective inter- frequency measurements and the mobile station can change to a narrow band operation and use lower power.
  • some embodiments provide a regular gap pattern in data frames and this can advantageously reduce the signalling overhead between the mobile station and the base station as the exact position of the empty portion for returning need not be signalled to a mobile station.
  • the regular empty portion can allow for safer encoding of the re ⁇ spective commands even where dedicated or explicit commands are used for signalling component carrier activation or deac ⁇ tivation from the base station to the mobile station.
  • RF re- tuning for component carrier activation may in these embodi ⁇ ments only occur in a mobile station during the regular empty portions in a radio frame and erroneous reception of explicit activation or deactivation commands for other portions of the radio frames is avoided.
  • providing a regular gap pattern in data frames can advantageously be used to simplify carrying of downlink control signalling.
  • This is by way of example ex ⁇ plained in the following for LTE-A where each data transmis ⁇ sion is acknowledged with an acknowledgment (ACK) or non- acknowledgment (NACK) in case of successful and unsuccessful reception, respectively.
  • the acknowledg ⁇ ments can be transmitted over the Hybrid Automatic Repeat Re- quest Indicator Channel (PHICH) which is located in the first OFDM symbol in each subframe.
  • PHICH Hybrid Automatic Repeat Re- quest Indicator Channel
  • the mobile station should not be granted any uplink transmission T - K TTIs before a retuning spreading over the entire subframe T.
  • This requires to apply a new condition / rule in the packet scheduler algorithm at the eNode B where the user grants are decided.
  • some embodiments can use the empty portions of the radio frames a timing reference for implementing a sched ⁇ uling rule which prevent uplink grant assignment according to the regular gap pattern.
  • a communication system like LTE-A employing carrier aggrega ⁇ tion may support an implicit mechanism for releasing compos ⁇ ite carriers which comprise at least one component carrier.
  • Such an implicit release mechanism may for instance be used as a security mechanism which deactivates a composite carrier after a while when for instance the composite carrier has been activated accidentally or some explicit deactivation command has been missed by the mobile station.
  • Such a mecha ⁇ nism may operate on a per-component carrier basis, such that missing activity on a given component carrier may trigger a release or deactivation of the specific component carrier.
  • the release mechanism may be based on a set of release timers wherein each timer controls an associated composite carrier. The release timer is started in the processor 3 when the as ⁇ sociated composite carrier is activated.
  • the release timer is restarted each time a transmission to the mobile station on the associated composite carrier is detected.
  • An expiry of a release timer indicates missing activity on the associated composite carrier and the mobile station may deactivate the associated composite carrier.
  • Such a deactivation may require retuning of an RF module in the transceiver 7 and may thus compromise data reception on all composite carriers served by this RF module and may thus lead to data loss during the re- tuning phase.
  • the processor 3 can receive a re ⁇ quest that any retuning triggered by implicit carrier compo ⁇ nent release shall be aligned with the next empty portion in a radio frame In this way data loss caused by implicit component carrier deactivation in a band is avoided when a component carrier is released in this band Instead, returning required by implicit component carrier release only occurs dur- ing empty portions of a radio frame when no data is transmitted .
  • legacy mobile stations that is, mobile stations not capable of carrier aggregation and, for example, supporting only earlier 3GPP releases than Rel-10, are not affected in any way by the implementation of shrinking of the transmission data frame and a predefined empty portion incorporated into the data frame structure which allows for required retuning of RF modules. Therefore the operation is fully transparent to legacy users and those will have all radio channel symbols available for reception without such empty portions.
  • the parameter Z allows to control the length of the empty portion with a resolution down to the OFDM symbol length. This can advantageously be used in some other embodiments when the phase for RF retuning in a mobile station is not an integer multiple of the basic scheduling period. This is by way of example explained in the following for LTE-A where the basic scheduling period is the length of one subframe.
  • the scheduling period is the temporal resolution used in the scheduling algorithm in a base station or central network node, like the eNode B in LTE or LTE-A, for allocating resources for data transmission to/from the mobile stations in a cell controlled by this base station or central network node.
  • the length of the retuning phase required for an adjustment of the received radio frequency or bandwidth of an RF module in a mobile station may for example be equal 1.2 subframes .
  • the scheduling algorithm needs to omit transmis ⁇ sion of data only for one complete scheduling period, that is, one subframe when the empty portion in the radio frame starts already 0.2 subframes before the end of the preceding subframe, that is, the preceding scheduling period, is reached.
  • the empty portion of the radio frame would account for 1.2 subframes which would be sufficient to perform the required retuning of the RF module.
  • the frac- tional part of the length of the empty portion may be handled on the physical layer (PHY) and may be transparent to the scheduling algorithm when the physical layer applies a higher modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the user data than in ⁇ dicated by the scheduling algorithm.
  • MCS modulation and coding scheme
  • the higher MCS allows for smaller allocation sizes in the time-frequency plane in LTE-A which may in turn allow for omitting data transmission in the last OFDM symbols of a subframe such that the unused OFDM symbols account for a length of 0.2 subframes.
  • This un ⁇ used fractional part of the subframe may be combined with a completely empty subframe which comprises in this example that part of the empty portion which is known to the schedul ⁇ ing algorithm and which is executed under control of the scheduling algorithm.
  • length of the fractional part of a scheduling period in the empty portion is known to the sched ⁇ uling algorithm and the physical layer (PHY) receives data packets in all not completely unused scheduling periods such that the obtained error rates are basically the same in all not completely unused scheduling periods.
  • the unused fractional part of the subframe shall be preferred to occur at the end of the preceding sub- frame. This would avoid further disruption in the transmis ⁇ sion of the control signaling channels such as PHICH and PDCCH which are located at the start of a subframe in LTE-A.
  • the required empty portion in the radio frame need not necessar ⁇ ily be inserted at the end of a subframe.
  • the length of the empty portions can vary.
  • the length of the empty portions may depend on the length of the retuning phases occurring in different mobile stations or even RF modules.
  • the length of the retuning phase may depend on the RF retuning operation performed in an RF module.
  • the length of the retuning phase may for instance depend on the requested frequency shift when an adjustment of the local oscillator frequency in the RF module is needed or/and on the required bandwidth adjustments in the RF module.
  • capability in ⁇ formation is provided which denotes a maximum or preferred length of the retuning phases per mobile station.
  • capability information is provided which denotes a maximum or preferred length of the retuning phases per mobile station and RF module.
  • capability information is provided which denotes a maximum or preferred length of the retuning phases per mobile station and RF module in dependency of the required RF retun ⁇ ing operation.
  • the mobile station provides this capabil ⁇ ity information to the base station.
  • This may be the pre ⁇ ferred embodiment when the length of the retiming phases var ⁇ ies significantly and the scheduling algorithm may for in- stance incorporate at least one completely unused scheduling period in the empty portion of the radio frame for retuning phases which exceed a certain length while only a fraction ⁇ ally unused scheduling period is needed for the shorter re- tuning phases.
  • the mobile station may provide the capability information either at begin of the operation in a cell or in regular intervals or on request of the base station.
  • the ca ⁇ pability information may be combined in the base station with status information which the mobile station provides to the base station and which characterizes the state of RF modules in the mobile station per RF module, for instance the fre ⁇ quency range controlled by the RF module and information con ⁇ cerning the component carriers served by the RF module. Based on this information the base station can determine the re ⁇ quired RF retuning operation and the length of the required retuning phase, and thus, the appropriate length of the empty portion .
  • Configurations for inter-frequency measurements in different frequency ranges may be active in an RF module and may lead to different retuning operations which may in turn lead to retuning phases of different length, and thus, empty portions in the radio frames of different length.
  • RF retuning in an RF module for implicit and/or explicit com ⁇ ponent carrier deactivation and/or explicit component carrier activation is only performed when the first empty portion of sufficient length occurs.
  • the length of the retuning phases is adapted to the required length of the retuning operation in the physical layer of the mobile station transparently to the scheduling algorithm exe ⁇ cuted in the base station.
  • a carrier comprising a multiple of component carriers may be provided by a communication device such as a mobile user equipment.
  • a communication device such as a mobile user equipment.
  • this may be the case in application where no fixed equipment provided but a communication system is provided by means of a plurality of user equipment, for example in adhoc networks. Therefore, al ⁇ though certain embodiments were described above by way of ex ⁇ ample with reference to certain exemplifying architectures for wireless networks, technologies and standards, embodi ⁇ ments may be applied to any other suitable forms of communi- cation systems than those illustrated and described herein.
  • the various embodiments may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects of the invention may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be imple ⁇ mented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device, al ⁇ though the invention is not limited thereto. While various aspects of the invention may be illustrated and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other pictorial representation, it is well understood that these blocks, ap ⁇ paratus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, soft ⁇ ware, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.
  • the embodiments of this invention may be implemented by com ⁇ puter software executable by a data processor of the mobile device, such as in the processor entity, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware.
  • any blocks of the logic flow as in the Figures may represent program steps, or interconnected logic circuits, blocks and functions, or a combination of program steps and logic circuits, blocks and functions.
  • the software may be stored on such physical media as memory chips, or memory blocks implemented within the processor, magnetic media such as hard disk or floppy disks, and optical media such as for example DVD and the data vari ⁇ ants thereof, CD.
  • the memory may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor-based memory de ⁇ vices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory.
  • the data processors may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microproces ⁇ sors, digital signal processors (DSPs) , application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) , gate level circuits and proces- sors based on multi-core processor architecture, as non-limiting examples.
  • Embodiments of the inventions may be practiced in various components such as integrated circuit modules.
  • the design of integrated circuits is by and large a highly automated proc ⁇ ess.
  • Complex and powerful software tools are available for converting a logic level design into a semiconductor circuit design ready to be etched and formed on a semiconductor sub- strate.
  • Programs such as those provided by Synopsys, Inc. of Moun ⁇ tain View, California and Cadence Design, of San Jose, Cali ⁇ fornia automatically route conductors and locate components on a semiconductor chip using well established rules of de ⁇ sign as well as libraries of pre-stored design modules.
  • the resultant design in a standardized electronic format (e.g., Opus, GDSII, or the like) may be transmitted to a semiconductor fabrication facility or "fab" for fabrication.
  • circuitry refers to all of the following:
  • circuits and software and/or firmware
  • combinations of circuits and software such as: (i) to a combination of processor (s) or (ii) to portions of processor ( s ) /software (including digital signal processor ( s )) , software, and memory (ies) that work to- gether to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions and
  • circuits such as a microprocessor ( s ) or a por ⁇ tion of a microprocessor (s) , that require software or firm- ware for operation, even if the software or firmware is not physically present.
  • x circuitry' applies to all uses of this term in this application, including any claims.
  • the term x circuitry' would also cover an implementation of merely a processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware.
  • the term x cir- cuitry' would also cover, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or applications processor integrated circuit for a mobile phone or similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other network device.

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Abstract

L'invention concerne un procédé comprenant la détermination de la planification de données destinée à envoyer des données sur un réseau de communication sur une ou plusieurs porteuses agrégées. Par la suite, la planification d'au moins une partie vide est déterminée. Ladite partie vide sert à syntoniser de nouveau un module de fréquence radio au niveau d'un récepteur. Une trame de données comprenant au moins une partie vide à envoyer sur le réseau de communication en fonction de la planification des données et de la planification de ladite partie vide est générée. Puis la trame de données est envoyée au récepteur.
PCT/EP2010/061889 2010-08-16 2010-08-16 Planification de porteuses de composantes WO2012022370A2 (fr)

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