WO2012149957A1

WO2012149957A1 - Reordering of harq packets for encoding additional information

Info

Publication number: WO2012149957A1
Application number: PCT/EP2011/057025
Authority: WO
Inventors: Troels Emil Kolding; Frank Frederiksen
Original assignee: Nokia Siemens Networks Oy
Priority date: 2011-05-03
Filing date: 2011-05-03
Publication date: 2012-11-08

Abstract

The invention relates to an apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: obtain information on a time schedule of a control information conveyance; obtain control information targeted to at least one target device; obtain recognition identities of one or more control information target devices; reorder at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance for the control information conveyance, and convey the control information and the recognition identities to the one or more control information target devices according to the time schedule using the at least some reordered hybrid automatic repeat request data packets.

Description

Title

REORDERING OF HARQ PACKETS FOR ENCODING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Field

The invention relates to apparatuses, methods, a system, computer programs, computer program products and comput^¬ er-readable media.

Background

The following description of background art may include insights, discoveries, understandings or disclosures, or associations together with disclosures not known to the relevant art prior to the present invention but provided by the invention. Some such contributions of the invention may be specifically pointed out below, whereas other such contri^¬ butions of the invention will be apparent from their context. An operator for many similar devices deployed in homes, shopping centers, etc. typically wishes to be able to update the devices every now and then. Usually, an updating process requires only a one-way communication link without a re^¬ quirement for acknowledgements. One typical use case may be messages of a "broadcast" type, but the messages may also be targeted to dedicated sets or subsets of users.

Brief description

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus comprising: at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: obtain information on a time schedule of a control in^¬ formation conveyance; obtain control information targeted to at least one target device; obtain recognition identities of one or more control information target devices; reorder at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance for the control information conveyance, and convey the control information and the recognition identities to the one or more control information target devices according to the time schedule using the at least some reordered hybrid automatic repeat request data packets. According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus comprising: at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: obtain information on a form of the control information; obtain recognition identity for being used in listening of the control information, and listen to the control information based on the recognition identity, and determining a control action by using the information on the form of the control information, the control information being conveyed by a network by using reordering of at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance. According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method comprising: obtaining information on a time schedule of a control information conveyance; obtaining control information targeted to at least one target device; obtaining recognition identities of one or more control information target devices; reordering at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance for the control information conveyance, and conveying the control information and the recognition identities to the one or more control information target devices according to the time schedule using the at least some reordered hybrid automatic repeat request data packets. According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method comprising: obtaining information on a form of the control information; obtaining recognition identity for being used in listening of the control infor- mation, and listening to the control information based on the recognition identity, and determining a control action by using the information on the form of the control information, the control information being conveyed by a network by using reordering of at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus comprising: means for obtaining information on a time schedule of a control information conveyance; means for obtaining control information targeted to at least one target device; means for obtaining recognition identities of one or more control information target devices; means for reordering at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance for the control information conveyance, and means for conveying the control information and the recognition identities to the one or more control information target devices according to the time schedule using the at least some reordered hybrid au^¬ tomatic repeat request data packets.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus comprising: means for obtaining information on a form of the control information; means for obtaining recognition identity for being used in listening of the control information, and listening to the control in^¬ formation based on the recognition identity, and means for determining a control action by using the information on the form of the control information, the control information being conveyed by a network by using reordering of at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance .

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program embodied on a comput- er-readable storage medium, the computer program comprising program code for controlling a process to execute a process, the process comprising: obtaining information on a time schedule of a control information conveyance; obtaining control information targeted to at least one target device; obtaining recognition identities of one or more control information target devices; reordering at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance for the control information conveyance, and conveying the control information and the recognition identities to the one or more control information target devices according to the time schedule using the at least some reordered hybrid automatic repeat request data packets.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program embodied on a comput- er-readable storage medium, the computer program comprising program code for controlling a process to execute a process, the process comprising: obtaining information on a form of the control information; obtaining recognition identity for being used in listening of the control information, and listening to the control information based on the recognition identity, and determining a control action by using the information on the form of the control information, the control information being conveyed by a network by using reordering of at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance. List of drawings

Some embodiments of the present invention are described below, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which

Figure 1 illustrates an example of a system;

Figures 2 and 3 are flow charts, and

Figure 4 illustrates examples of apparatuses.

Description of embodiments

The following embodiments are only examples. Although the specification may refer to "an", "one", or "some" embodiment ( s ) in several locations, this does not necessarily mean that each such reference is to the same embodiment (s) , or that the feature only applies to a single embodiment. Single features of different embodiments may also be combined to provide other embodiments.

Embodiments are applicable to any user device, such as a user terminal, relay node, server, node, corresponding component, and/or to any communication system or any combination of different communication systems that support required functionalities. The communication system may be a wireless communication system or a communication system utilizing both fixed networks and wireless networks. The protocols used, the specifications of communication systems, apparatuses, such as servers and user terminals, especially in wireless communication, develop rapidly. Such development may require extra changes to an embodiment. Therefore, all words and expressions should be interpreted broadly and they are intended to illustrate, not to restrict, embodiments.

In the following, different exemplifying embodiments will be described using, as an example of an access architecture to which the embodiments may be applied, a radio access architecture based on LTE Advanced, LTE-A, that is based on orthogonal frequency multiplexed access (OFDMA) in a downlink and a single-carrier frequency-division multiple access (SC-FDMA) in an uplink, without restricting the embodiments to such an architecture, however. It is obvious for a person skilled in the art that the embodiments may also be applied to other kinds of communications networks having suitable means by adjusting parameters and procedures appropriately. For example, the embodiments are applicable to both frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD) .

In an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system, the available spectrum is divided into multiple orthogonal sub-carriers. In OFDM systems, available bandwidth is divided into narrower sub-carriers and data is transmitted in parallel streams. Each OFDM symbol is a linear combination of signals on each of the subcarriers. Further, each OFDM symbol is preceded by a cyclic prefix (CP) , which is used to decrease Inter-Symbol Interference. Unlike in OFDM, SC-FDMA subcarriers are not independently modulated.

Typically, a (e)NodeB ("e" stands for evolved) needs to know channel quality of each user device and/or the preferred precoding matrices (and/or other multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) specific feedback information, such as channel quantization) over the allocated sub-bands to schedule transmissions to user devices. Required information is usually signalled to the (e)NodeB.

Figure 1 depicts examples of simplified system ar^¬ chitectures only showing some elements and functional en^¬ tities, all being logical units, whose implementation may differ from what is shown. The connections shown in Figure 1 are logical connections; the actual physical connections may be different. It is apparent to a person skilled in the art that the system typically comprises also other functions and structures than those shown in Figure 1. The embodiments are not, however, restricted to the system given as an example but a person skilled in the art may apply the solution to other communication systems provided with the necessary properties. Some examples of other options for suitable systems are the universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) radio access network (UTRAN or E-UTRAN) , long term evolution (LTE, the same as E-UTRA) , wireless local area network (WLAN or WiFi) , worldwide interoperability for mi^¬ crowave access (WiMAX) , Bluetooth®, personal communications services (PCS) , ZigBee®, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) , systems using ultra-wideband (UWB) tech^¬ nology, sensor networks, mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) and Internet Protocol multimedia subsystems (IMS).

Figure 1 shows a part of a radio access network of E-UTRA, LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) or LTE/EPC (EPC = evolved packet core, EPC is enhancement of packet switched technology to cope with faster data rates and growth of Internet protocol traffic) . E-UTRA is an air interface of Release 8 (UTRA= UMTS terrestrial radio access, UMTS= universal mobile telecom- munications system) . Some advantages obtainable by LTE (or E-UTRA) are a possibility to use plug and play devices, and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) in the same platform.

Figure 1 shows user devices 100 and 102 configured to be in a wireless connection on one or more communication channels 104, 106 in a cell with a (e)NodeB 108 providing the cell. The physical link from a user device to a (e)NodeB is called uplink or reverse link and the physical link from the NodeB to the user device is called downlink or forward link.

The NodeB, or advanced evolved node B (eNodeB, eNB) in

LTE-Advanced, is a computing device configured to control the radio resources of communication system it is coupled to. The (e) NodeB may also be referred to a base station, an access point or any other type of interfacing device including a relay station capable of operating in a wireless environment.

The (e)NodeB includes transceivers, for example. From the transceivers of the (e)NodeB, a connection is provided to an antenna unit that establishes bi-directional radio links to user devices. The antenna unit may comprise a plurality of antennas or antenna elements. The (e)NodeB is further connected to core network 110 (CN) . Depending on the system, the counterpart on the CN side can be a serving gateway (S-GW, routing and forwarding user data packets) , packet data network gateway (P-GW) , for providing connectivity of user devices (UEs) to external packet data networks, or mobile management entity (MME) , etc.

A communications system typically comprises more than one (e)NodeB in which case the (e)NodeBs may also be configured to communicate with one another over links, wired or wireless, designed for the purpose . These links may be used for signalling purposes .

The communication system is also able to communicate with other networks, such as a public switched telephone network or the Internet 112.

The user device (also called UE, user equipment, user terminal, etc.) illustrates one type of an apparatus to which resources on the air interface are allocated and assigned, and thus any feature described herein with a user device may be implemented with a corresponding apparatus, such as a relay node. An example of such a relay node is a layer 3 relay (self-backhauling relay) towards the base station.

The user device typically refers to a portable computing device that includes wireless mobile communication devices operating with or without a subscriber identification module (SIM) , including, but not limited to, the following types of devices: a mobile station (mobile phone) , smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA) , handset, device using a wireless modem (alarm or measurement device, etc.), laptop and/or touch screen computer, tablet, game console, notebook, and multimedia device .

The user device (or in some embodiments a layer 3 relay node) is configured to perform one or more of user equipment functionalities. The user device may also be called a sub^¬ scriber unit, mobile station, remote terminal, access ter^¬ minal, user terminal or user equipment (UE) just to mention but a few names or apparatuses.

It should be understood that, in Figure 1, user devices are depicted to include 2 antennas only for the sake of clarity. The number of reception and/or transmission antennas may naturally vary according to a current implementation.

Further, although the apparatuses have been depicted as single entities, different units, processors and/or memory units (not all shown in Figure 1A) may be implemented.

It is obvious for a person skilled in the art that the depicted system is only an example of a part of a radio access system and in practise, the system may comprise a plurality of

(e)NodeBs, the user device may have an access to a plurality of radio cells and the system may comprise also other ap^¬ paratuses, such as physical layer relay nodes or other network elements, etc. At least one of the NodeBs or eNodeBs may be a Home (e) nodeB . Additionally, in a geographical area of a radio communication system a plurality of different kinds of radio cells as well as a plurality of radio cells may be provided. Radio cells may be macro cells (or umbrella cells) which are large cells, usually having a diameter of up to tens of kilometres, or smaller cells such as micro-, femto- or pi- cocells. The (e) odeB 108 of Figure 1 may provide any kind of these cells. A cellular radio system may be implemented as a multilayer network including several kinds of cells. Typi- cally, in multilayer networks, one node B provides one kind of a cell or cells, and thus a plurality of node Bs are required to provide such a network structure.

An operator for many similar devices deployed in homes, shopping centers, etc. typically wishes to be able to update the devices every now and then. In some cases, an updating process requires only a one-way communication link without a requirement for acknowledgements. One typical use case may be messages of a "broadcast" type, but the messages may also be targeted to dedicated sets or subsets of users.

Some examples of such cases include transferring prices of consumption of a service or commodities, such as water, electricity, etc. For instance, a device coupled to a network is designed to control the consumption system in a house (e.g. heating, flower watering, electricity) in such a manner that the commodity is consumed when it is cheapest.

Another example is the case wherein a communication link transfers on/off information of the service provided by a device coupled to a network. The control may be designed to balance the consumption in the network, such as when an air condition system is used in a region where load balancing of the electricity system is provided.

Thus, a need for conveying one-way control information exists. For this purpose, it is usually beneficial to use an existing network without extra overhead to the network by re-using the existing standards.

Typically, for achieving a practical implementation of this idea it is presumed that information is visible to devices even when they have not established a two-way connection. This is usable in applications where sensor devices do not have a subscriber identity module (SIM) card and they are only pre-programmed to listen to a cellular transmission in a predefined way. Further, the meaning of control messages sent for remote control purpose need usually to be well-defined. This may be carried out either via standardization or agreed between operators (such as a cellular operator and a machine-to-machine communications operator) .

Power consumption is usually a critical issue in ma^¬ chine-to-machine or device-to-device communication. Thus, for obtaining savings in power, specific time instances where a device "listens" to a remote control signal may be specified. Recently an idea of using packet reordering principles for communicating extra information over communication channels without impacting the existing communication capacity has come up. Such a principle is based on the assumption that not all theoretical capacity is squeezed out of a communication link. Thus, control overhead is typically provided in communications networks.

However, for the time being, the idea has been only on a theoretical level and no practical implementations have been presented .

Additionally, it should be appreciated that in theory, a communication protocol is considered to introduce a delay in the packet domain due to a reordering process . Thus, a practical implementation that does not cause that delay or causes it as little as possible is required.

An embodiment provides means for remote controlling poten- tially thousands of devices in a region where one or more communications networks are provided without drowning air interface or core network resources. It should be understood that HARQ process identity (ID) is typically not required to increase linearly.

In the following, some embodiments are disclosed in further details in relation to Figure 2. The embodiment of Figure 2 is usually related to a server or host. The embodiment is suitable for being used for example in smart grids as a part of network automation. The embodiment may be part of an energy system providing market-based load and elasticity of demand, for example. The embodiment begins in block 200.

In block 202, information on a time schedule of a control information conveyance is obtained.

A node B or a corresponding device, may covey, such as transmit, control information typically to all user devices (sensors) in its coverage area. This type of transmitting may be considered to be broadcasting. If the control information is transmitted frequently enough, each target device will most probably be listening to and obtain the control information. Naturally, in practice, an upper limit for repetitions exists, since it is not reasonable to waste too much of available resources for retransmissions. In this case, time scheduling may be designed to avoid simultaneous transmission of several different pieces of control information which could cause information collision and thus difficulties in reception.

In another embodiment, target devices may obtain in^¬ formation on a time when control information is conveyed and it should be listening. In such a case, target devices are only listening and only in the period of time, when the conveyance is ongoing. For the rest of the time they may be in an idle or sleep mode. The target device may "wake up" at the right time. For the user devices to have as long battery life-time as possible, the control information or update rate should be long enough, but simultaneously short enough to be suitable for the control need at issue. One example could be a one-way com^¬ munication every Nsubf subframes with a system frame number (SFN) start index defined. A rate could be once per hour, once per day, etc. It should be understood that in this case, a target device typically needs to know its internal timer accuracy and when to wake up to be able to listen to the control data conveyance . In this kind of "time-controlled" transmission, time scheduling may be designed to synchronize transmission and listening. Naturally, it may be designed to avoid information collision as well.

In block 204, control information to be targeted to at least one target device is obtained.

Control information is typically generated by an operator of the service or commodity in question. Control information may be a code word or message, for example.

Servers, nodes or hosts may agree on the meaning of code words or messages to be used as control information. The code word or message may be read from a web-server or it may be transferred by means of other agreed protocol (e.g. entered manually into a local data base in the node B or a corresponding device by a vendor), etc. used method may vary according to current needs .

A control information target device may be a fixed device or a mobile device. A fixed device may herein mean a device not "traditionally" coupled to a wireless system. Some examples of such devices are a heating device, air conditioning device, measuring device (such as an electricity consumption meter) , or a wake-up signal for a Femtocell layer. A target device may also be a "traditional" wireless device, such as a mobile phone or multimedia device.

In block 206, recognition identities of one or more control information target devices are obtained.

In a typical case, a plurality of control information target devices is involved, but not necessarily. For example, originally control information is targeted to a plurality of devices, but then one or only e few devices needs retransmission of the control information or further control information.

One example of a recognition identity may be a unique user number. Typically it is agreed with a device operator. In order to create a unique recognition identity, the understanding of certain parameters, such as a full set or a subset of carrier frequencies of the device operator, a range of cell identities (cell IDs) validated to carry information, and/or a range of channels suitable for control information within a cell that the device should monitor, is typically required. The rec^¬ ognition identity is usually designed for a remote device to be able to make a unique extraction of relevant control information in a cell.

In some implementations, devices may be configured when being mounted (as a part of configuration measurements, which enables initial communication to a network and obtains relevant information) .

In an exemplifying case, the LTE system, a considered control channel type is a primary downlink control channel (PDCCH) . In the case of a communication to a plurality of devices in a at least relatively large geographical area, a typical configuration may be that devices know an identity or index of a control channel, while a cell ID may belong to a wider range, in such a manner that any device may be able to obtain information from multiple cells in the area. In this case, information may be "broadcasted" in all cells of a geographical area and devices may monitor the strongest cell (within given/configured cell ID range), when obtaining control information. An example of a possible simple use case is broadcasting of consumption prices by multiple cells: control information is transmitted using control channel number "x". In all cells, each normal user is assigned an identity (a cell-specific radio network temporary identifier - C-RNTI) whenever they request a connection to the network in question. As the C-RNTI is assigned dynamically, the network can assign the value "x" to various users active in the system to ensure that C-RNTI "x" is actively used and available for commu- nication purposes also or exclusively to devices in the system. As a C-RNTI is usually temporary, it is possible to permit it to be assigned as an identity to different users for different periods of time. Further, it is an option to transmit in- formation on a PDCCH that is scheduled for C-RNTI "x", even if no user has been assigned to this specific C-RNTI. In this case, the transmission of data on the PDCCH causes PDCCH resources to be used without an associated data channel, thereby possibly decreasing the usage of control channel resources compared to the optimum case. However, this approach brings a possibility to address devices passively listening to information targeted to a specific C-RNTI.

In block 208, at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance are reordered for the control information conveyance.

The reordering may use a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process re-numbering scheme to enable a zero or at least low-overhead one-way communication to a potentially infinite set of listening devices with usually negligible impact to the system performance.

In one embodiment, HARQ process numbering itself is used, while in another embodiment, HARQ process numbering scheme is combined with an understanding of timing (a system frame number, for instance) to create an even larger signaling space.

The node, server or host uses the order of chosen HARQ processes to signal control information to devices. As asynchronous HARQ is usually utilized in the downlink di^¬ rection, the order of HARQ processes may be freely chosen without loss of generality or robustness. However, if a system is at the same time scheduling a "real" or "normal" user, a limitation to randomizing the HARQ processes exists, for instance, a codeword is limited to 8 in length for matching to available number of HARQ processes. It should be appreciated that a small difference between time division duplex (TDD) and frequency division duplex (FDD) as TDD systems configure a different number of HARQ processes depending on the active uplink/downlink configuration, and might be able to address up to 16 HARQ processes.

As an illustrative example, a simple case is presented, wherein simple ON/OFF control information is transmitted to all devices in an area. This leads to the following transmission scheme as shown below in Table 1. In the Table 1, numerical values are HARQ-values. SFN stands for a sub-frame number.

Table 1.

In the example above, a device only has to detect one correct PDCCH subframe in order to decode whether ON or OFF was transmitted. Hence, the method is robust for errors, and in this special use case, it might even be applied without remote device or sensor knowing the absolute timing of the system. If timing is not known, an option is to observe difference in process numbering. In the example of Table 1, it is observed whether process identity (ID) is increasing or decreasing to determine ON/OFF state.

The latter may be envisioned as a system, wherein HARQ processes for a specified user have been re-ordered according to the desired signaling to user devices or sensors. In this case the devices or sensors do not need to be in strict timing with the system, but it is enough that they wake up and listen to control information at any given time for a number of consecutive subframes.

It should be appreciated that Table 1 is only presented as a clarifying example and it is not limiting the imple- mentation of embodiments by any means.

In block 210, the control information and the recognition identities are conveyed to the one or more control information target devices according to the time schedule using the at least some reordered hybrid automatic repeat request data packets.

In an exemplifying case, at a scheduled time the node or server or host transmits in the downlink on a PDCCH in the LTE or on a high-speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH) in the high-speed packet access (HSDPA) to user devices having recognition identities of control information target devices. The transmission takes place in a scheduled time window for each subframe, for instance.

It is also possible to schedule transmission to a "real" or "normal" user which may be a cellular user. It is also an option to accomplish a temporary dummy assignment to the "real" or "normal" user which costs one PDCCH resource for the subframes to ensure a full cell coverage. A PDCCH resource may even be allocated at a high aggregation level (either aggregation level 4 or 8 depending on the cell layout) .

If the user experiences a delay compared to the optimum solution due to pending HARQ retransmissions, it is an option not to allocate resources to user devices which are reserved for real-time use. This may be carried out based on "banned" recognition identities.

The embodiment ends in block 212. The embodiment is repeatable in many ways. One example is shown by arrow 214 in Figure 2. Another embodiment is now explained by means of Figure 3. The embodiment of Figure 3 is usually related to a user device. The embodiment is suitable for being used for example in smart grids as a part of network automation. The embodiment may be part of an energy system providing market-based load and elasticity of demand, for example. The embodiment begins in block 300. In block 302, information on a form of the control information is obtained.

Control information is typically generated by an operator of the service or commodity in question.

Servers, nodes or hosts may agree on the meaning of code words or messages to be used. The code word or message may be read from a web-server or it may be transferred by means of other agreed protocol (e.g. entered manually into a local data base in the node B or a corresponding device by a vendor) , etc. used method may vary according to current needs .

Is the control information is a code word, the user device has to be able to decode it correctly for carrying out a correct action, such as using a service or commodity (see above the exemplifying use case wherein control information is either ON or OFF command)

In block 304, recognition identity for being used in listening of the control information is obtained.

One example of a recognition identity may be a unique user number. Typically it is agreed with a device operator. In order to create a unique recognition identity, understanding of certain parameters, such as a full set or a subset of carrier frequencies of the device operator, a range of cell identities cell IDs) validated to carry information and/or a range of channels suitable for control information within a cell that the device should monitor is usually needed. The recognition identity is typically designed for a remote device to be able to make a unique extraction of relevant control information in a cell.

In an exemplifying case, the LTE system, a considered control channel type is a primary downlink control channel (PDCCH) . I in the case of the control information is conveyed to a plurality of target devices in a at least relatively large geographical area, a channel used for control information may be recognized by channel identity or index, and a cell identity (ID) is chosen from a range, in such a manner that the target device is able to obtain information from multiple cells in the geographical area. In this case, information may be

"broadcasted" in all cells of a geographical area and devices may monitor the strongest cell (within given/configured cell ID range), when obtaining control information. An example of a possible simple use case is broadcasting of consumption prices by multiple cells: control information is transmitted using control channel number "x". In all cells, each normal user is assigned an identity (a cell-specific radio network temporary identifier - C-RNTI) whenever they request a connection to the network in question. As the C-RNTI is assigned dynamically, the network can assign the value "x" to users active in the system to ensure that C-RNTI "x" is actively used and available for communication purposes also or exclusively to devices in the system.

In block 306, the control information is listened to on the basis of the recognition identity, and determining a control action by using the information on the form of the control information, the control information being conveyed by a network by using reordering of at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance.

A user device usually identifies or differentiates the control information targeted to it by the recognition identity. If the control information is in the form of a code word, the user device may use a look-up table to decode the word. One example of such a table is shown as Table 1 above. It should be appreciated that Table 1 is only presented as a clarifying example and it is not limiting the implementation of the embodiment by any means .

Reordering is explained in further detail above in relation to Figure 2.

A node B or a corresponding device, may covey, such as transmit, control information typically to all user devices (sensors) in its coverage area. This type of transmitting may be considered to be broadcasting. If the control information is transmitted frequently enough, each target device will most probably be listening to and obtain the control information. Naturally, in practice, an upper limit for repetitions exists, since it is not reasonable to waste too much of available resources for retransmissions .

In another embodiment, a user device may obtain information on a time when control information is conveyed and it should be listening to the control information. In such a case, target devices are only listening and only in the period of time, when the conveyance is ongoing. For the rest of the time they may be in an idle or sleep mode. The target device may "wake up" at the right time. For the user devices to have as long battery life-time as possible, the control information or update rate should be long enough, but simultaneously short enough to be suitable for the control need at issue. One example could be a one-way communication every Nsubf subframes with a system frame number (SFN) start index defined. A rate could be once per hour, once per day, etc. It should be understood that in this case, a target device typically needs to know its internal timer accuracy and when to wake up to be able to listen to the control data conveyance. The embodiment ends in block 308. The embodiment is repeatable in many ways. One example is shown by arrow 310 in Figure 3. Embodiments of Figures 2 and 3 provide a possibility for arranging remote control of a plurality, possibly thousands, of devices with even negligible impact to cellular network capacity and performance. The embodiments do not require standardization changes.

The steps/points, signaling messages and related functions described above in Figures 2 and 3 are in no absolute chronological order, and some of the steps/points may be performed simultaneously or in an order differing from the given one. Other functions can also be executed between the steps/points or within the steps/points and other signaling messages sent between the illustrated messages. Some of the steps/points or part of the steps/points can also be left out or replaced by a corresponding step/point or part of the step/point .

It should be understood that conveying, transmitting and/or receiving may herein mean preparing a data conveyance, transmission and/or reception, preparing a message to be conveyed, transmitted and/or received, or physical trans^¬ mission and/or reception itself, etc. on a case by case basis. An embodiment provides an apparatus which may be any node, host, server, user device or any other suitable apparatus capable to carry our processes described above in relation to Figures 2 and 3.

Figure 4 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment especially suitable for conveying control information.

As an example of an apparatus according to an embodiment, it is shown an apparatus 400, such as a node device, host, server or user device, including facilities in a control unit 404 (including one or more processors, for example) to carry out functions of embodiments, such as reordering for control information conveyance at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance, or listening to control information based on the recognition identity, and determining a control action by using the information on the form of the control information, the control information being conveyed by a network by using reordering of at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance. This is depicted in Figure 4. Block 406 includes parts/units/modules need for reception and transmission, usually called a radio front end, RF-parts, radio parts, etc. Another example of an apparatus 400 may include at least one processor 404 and at least one memory 402 including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: obtain information on a time schedule of a control information conveyance; obtain control infor^¬ mation targeted to at least one target device; obtain rec^¬ ognition identities of one or more control information target devices; reorder at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance for the control information conveyance, and convey the control in^¬ formation and the recognition identities to the one or more control information target devices according to the time schedule using the at least some reordered hybrid automatic repeat request data packets.

Another example of an apparatus 400 may include at least one processor 404 and at least one memory 402 including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: obtain information on a form of the control information; obtain recognition identity for being used in listening of the control information, and listen to the control information based on the recognition identity, and determining a control action by using the information on the form of the control information, the control information being conveyed by a network by using reordering of at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance .

Yet another example of an apparatus comprises means 404 for obtaining information on a time schedule of a control information conveyance; means 404, (406) for obtaining control information targeted to at least one target device; means 404, (406) for obtaining recognition identities of one or more control information target devices; means 404 for reordering at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance for the control information conveyance, and means 404, (406) for conveying the control information and the recognition identities to the one or more control information target devices according to the time schedule using the at least some reordered hybrid automatic repeat request data packets.

Yet another example of an apparatus comprises means 404, (406) for obtaining information on a form of the control information; means 404, (406) for obtaining recognition identity for being used in listening of the control information, and means 404, (406) for listening to the control information based on the recognition identity, and determining a control action by using the information on the form of the control information, the control information being conveyed by a network by using reordering of at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance.

Yet another example of an apparatus comprises a first obtainer configured to obtain information on a time schedule of a control information conveyance; a second obtainer configured to obtain control information targeted to at least one target device; a third obtainer configured to obtain recognition identities of one or more control information target devices; a reordering unit configured to reorder at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance for the control information conveyance, and a conveying unit configured to convey the control information and the rec^¬ ognition identities to the one or more control information target devices according to the time schedule using the at least some reordered hybrid automatic repeat request data packets. Yet another example of an apparatus comprises a first obtainer configured to obtain information on a form of the control information; a second obtainer configured to obtain recognition identity for being used in listening of the control information, and a listening unit configured to listen to the control information based on the recognition identity, and determining a control action by using the information on the form of the control information, the control information being conveyed by a network by using reordering of at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance.

It should be appreciated that a first obtainer, second obtainer etc. may be integrated in a same unit, for example as parts of a computer program code and/or logical circuit in an apparatus-specific manner.

It should be understood that the apparatuses may include or be coupled to other units or modules etc, such as radio parts or radio heads, used in or for transmission and/or reception. This is depicted in Figure 4 as an optional block 406.

Although the apparatuses have been depicted as one entity in Figure 4, different modules and memory may be implemented in one or more physical or logical entities.

An apparatus may in general include at least one processor, controller or a unit designed for carrying out control functions operably coupled to at least one memory unit and to various interfaces. Further, the memory units may include volatile and/or non-volatile memory. The memory unit may store computer program code and/or operating systems, information, data, content or the like for the processor to perform operations according to embodiments. Each of the memory units may be a random access memory, hard drive, etc. The memory units may be at least partly removable and/or detachably operationally coupled to the apparatus. The memory may be of any type suitable for the current technical environment and it may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor-based technology, flash memory, magnetic and/or optical memory devices. The memory may be fixed or removable .

The apparatus may be a software application, or a module, or a unit configured as arithmetic operation, or as a program (including an added or updated software routine) , executed by an operation processor. Programs, also called program products or computer programs, including software routines, applets and macros, can be stored in any appara^¬ tus-readable data storage medium and they include program instructions to perform particular tasks. Computer programs may be coded by a programming language, which may be a high-level programming language, such as objective-C, C, C++, Java, etc., or a low-level programming language, such as a machine language, or an assembler.

Modifications and configurations required for im^¬ plementing functionality of an embodiment may be performed as routines, which may be implemented as added or updated software routines, application circuits (ASIC) and/or programmable circuits. Further, software routines maybe downloaded into an apparatus. The apparatus, such as a node device, or a cor^¬ responding component, may be configured as a computer or a microprocessor, such as single-chip computer element, or as a chipset, including at least a memory for providing storage capacity used for arithmetic operation and an operation processor for executing the arithmetic operation.

Embodiments provide computer programs embodied on a dis^¬ tribution medium, comprising program instructions which, when loaded into electronic apparatuses, constitute the apparatuses as explained above.

Other embodiments provide computer programs embodied on a computer readable medium, configured to control a processor to perform embodiments of the methods described above.

The computer program may be in source code form, object code form, or in some intermediate form, and it may be stored in some sort of carrier, distribution medium, or computer readable medium, which may be any entity or device capable of carrying the program. Such carriers include a record medium, computer memory, read-only memory, electrical carrier signal, telecommunications signal, and software distribution package, for example. Depending on the processing power needed, the computer program may be executed in a single electronic digital computer or it may be distributed amongst a number of computers. The techniques described herein may be implemented by various means. For example, these techniques may be implemented in hardware (one or more devices) , firmware (one or more devices) , software (one or more modules), or combinations thereof. For a hardware implementation, the apparatus may be implemented within one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) , digital signal processors (DSPs) , digital signal processing devices (DSPDs) , programmable logic devices (PLDs) , field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) , processors, con^¬ trollers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other elec^¬ tronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof. For firmware or software, the implementation can be carried out through modules of at least one chip set (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. The software codes may be stored in a memory unit and executed by processors. The memory unit may be implemented within the processor or ex^¬ ternally to the processor. In the latter case it can be communicatively coupled to the processor via various means, as is known in the art. Additionally, the components of systems described herein may be rearranged and/or complimented by additional components in order to facilitate achieving the various aspects, etc., described with regard thereto, and they are not limited to the precise configurations set forth in the given figures, as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art. It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, as technology advances, the inventive concept may be implemented in various ways. The invention and its embodiments are not limited to the examples described above but may vary within the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

obtain information on a time schedule of a control information conveyance;

obtain control information targeted to at least one target device;

obtain recognition identities of one or more control information target devices;

reorder at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance for the control information conveyance, and

convey the control information and the recognition identities to the one or more control information target devices according to the time schedule using the at least some reordered hybrid automatic repeat request data packets.

2. An apparatus comprising:

obtain information on a form of the control information; obtain recognition identity for being used in listening of the control information, and

listen to the control information based on the recognition identity, and determining a control action by using the information on the form of the control information, the control information being conveyed by a network by using reordering of at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the control information is at least one of the following: a code word and message .

4. The apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein the recognition identity is a unique user number.

5. The apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein the recognition identity is created taken into consideration at least one of the following: a full set or a subset of carrier frequencies of the device operator, a range of cell identities (cell IDs) validated to carry information and a range of channels suitable for control information within a cell that the device should monitor.

6. The apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein the control information is conveyed on or listened from a primary downlink control channel (PDCCH) or high-speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH) .

7. The apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process numbering itself is used or the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process numbering scheme is combined with an understanding of timing.

8. The apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein the control information target devices are only listening and only in the period of time, when the conveyance is on-going which is informed beforehand.

9. The apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein in the case of the control information is conveyed to a plurality of target devices in a at least relatively large geographical area, a channel used for control information may be recognized by channel identity or index and a cell identity (ID) is chosen from a range, in such a manner that the target device is able to obtain information from multiple cells in the geographical area .

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one target device is at least one of the following: a fixed device and a mobile device.

11. The apparatus of any preceding claim, the apparatus comprising a server, host, node or user device.

12. A computer program comprising program instructions which, when loaded into the apparatus, constitute the modules of any preceding claim 1 to 10.

13. A method comprising:

obtaining information on a time schedule of a control information conveyance;

obtaining control information targeted to at least one target device ;

obtaining recognition identities of one or more control information target devices;

reordering at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance for the control information conveyance, and

conveying the control information and the recognition identities to the one or more control information target devices according to the time schedule using the at least some reordered hybrid automatic repeat request data packets.

14. A method comprising:

obtaining information on a form of the control information; obtaining recognition identity for being used in listening of the control information, and

listening to the control information based on the recognition identity, and determining a control action by using the information on the form of the control information, the control information being conveyed by a network by using reordering of at least some of hybrid automatic repeat request data packets intended for data conveyance.

15. The method of claim 13 or 14, wherein the control information is at least one of the following: a code word and message .

16. The method of any preceding claim 13 to 15, wherein the recognition identity is a unique user number.

17. The method of any preceding claim 13 to 16, wherein the recognition identity is created taken into consideration at least one of the following: a full set or a subset of carrier frequencies of the device operator, a range of cell identities (cell IDs) validated to carry information and a range of channels suitable for control information within a cell that the device should monitor.

18. The method of any preceding claim 13 to 17, wherein the control information is conveyed on or listened from a primary downlink control channel (PDCCH) or high-speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH) .

19. The method of any preceding claim 13 to 18, wherein a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process numbering itself is used or the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process numbering scheme is combined with an understanding of timing .

20. The method of any preceding claim 13 to 19, wherein the control information target devices are only listening and only in the period of time, when the conveyance is on-going which is informed beforehand.

21. The method of any preceding claim 13 to 20, wherein in the case of the control information is conveyed to a plurality of target devices in a at least relatively large geographical area, a channel used for control information may be recognized by channel identity or index and a cell identity (ID) is chosen from a range, in such a manner that the target device is able to obtain information from multiple cells in the geographical area.

22. An apparatus comprising means for carrying out the method according to any one of claims 13 to 21.

23. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program comprising program code for controlling a process to execute a process, the process comprising :

obtaining information on a time schedule of a control information conveyance;

obtaining control information targeted to at least one target device;

24. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program comprising program code for controlling a process to execute a process, the process comprising :

obtaining information on a form of the control information;

obtaining recognition identity for being used in lis- tening of the control information, and

25. The computer program of claim 23 or 24, wherein the control information is at least one of the following: a code word and message.

26. The computer program of any preceding claim 23 to 25, wherein the recognition identity is a unique user number.

27. The computer program of any preceding claim 23 to 26, wherein the recognition identity is created taken into consideration at least one of the following: a full set or a subset of carrier frequencies of the device operator, a range of cell identities (cell IDs) validated to carry information and a range of channels suitable for control information within a cell that the device should monitor.

28. The computer program of any preceding claim 23 to 27, wherein the control information is conveyed on or listened from a primary downlink control channel (PDCCH) or high-speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH) .

29. The computer program of any preceding claim 23 to 28, wherein a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process numbering itself is used or the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process numbering scheme is combined with an understanding of timing.

30. The computer program of any preceding claim 23 to 29, wherein the control information target devices are only listening and only in the period of time, when the conveyance is on-going which is informed beforehand.

31. The computer program of any preceding claim 23 to 30, wherein in the case of the control information is conveyed to a plurality of target devices in a at least relatively large geographical area, a channel used for control information may be recognized by channel identity or index and a cell identity (ID) is chosen from a range, in such a manner that the target device is able to obtain information from multiple cells in the geographical area.