WO2015003366A1

WO2015003366A1 - Control of cqi reports

Info

Publication number: WO2015003366A1
Application number: PCT/CN2013/079226
Authority: WO
Inventors: Chunyan Gao; Jing HAN; Haiming Wang; Lili Zhang; Wei Hong
Original assignee: Broadcom Corporation
Priority date: 2013-07-11
Filing date: 2013-07-11
Publication date: 2015-01-15

Abstract

There are provided measures for control of aperiodic CQI reports. Such measures exemplarily comprise receiving a message comprising a request for quality measurement, obtaining information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement, and determining a resource for said quality measurement based on said information.

Description

CONTROL OF CQI REPORTS

Field

The present invention relates to control of CQI reports. More specifically, the present invention exemplarily relates to measures (including methods, apparatuses and computer program products) for realizing control of aperiodic CQI reports.

Background

The present specification generally relates to enhanced aperiodic channel quality indication (CQI) for flexible time division duplex (TDD) systems.

It is identified that due to potential cross-link interference, an interference level can be much different in fixed subframes and flexible subframes. Namely, for dynamic TDD capable user equipments (UE), downlink transmission could occur in both static downlink subframes and flexible subframes. The interference situation may be different when considering UE reception in the two types of subframes. In particular, in static downlink subframes, the inter-cell interference arises from the neighboring evolved NodeB(s) (eNodeB, eNB), while in flexible subframes the inter-cell interference could either come from neighboring eNB(s) or certain UE(s) served by the neighboring eNB(s), which are currently scheduled with uplink (UL) transmissions.

To capture the different interference situations, separate channel state information (CSI) measurements could be considered for the two types of subframes, so that downlink (DL) scheduling as well as link adaptation can be properly performed, and indeed, proposals have been given to measure CQI for fixed subframes and flexible subframes separately.

The CQI measurement for flexible subframe can, however, only be done in a flexible subframe which is configured as DL. From this aspect, periodic CQI configuration for flexible subframes is not considered very efficient, since flexible subframes can be dynamically configured to be UL or DL, such that semi-static periodic CQI measurement for flexible subframes may not be available.

One possibility to handle the above mentioned is letting an UE omit the corresponding CQI measurement (i.e. for a flexible subframe configured as UL) and report when flexible subframes are configured as UL. However, it may cause problems in case there is misunderstanding at UE side on the link direction of flexible TDD subframes, e.g., due to reconfiguration signaling miss detection.

In such case, UE may omit one CQI measurement/report unnecessarily, or may measure/report one CQI unnecessarily. If, in such case, the unnecessary CQI report is sent in Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) together with data, it may cause error detection at eNB side since eNB may assume that there is no CQI report attached to the PUSCH transmission.

Another issue is how to support CSI measurement in fast physical layer signaling enabled dynamic TDD. The problem here is that when a UE is not scheduled, it would have no idea what the link direction (i.e. UL or DL) is in the flexible subframes. If the link direction happens to be a downlink, the CSI measurement could be performed properly. However, if the link direction is an uplink, there may be a discrepancy component in the interference measurement since additional intra-cell interference from uplink transmissions may be included which actually should not be, since intra-cell interference would not exist when the flexible subframe is scheduled with downlink transmissions. Aperiodic CQI report might be triggered dynamically when needed, and then it may be more suitable to support CQI measurement/report for flexible subframes. However, it is noted that problems occurs when providing aperiodic CQI for flexible subframes according to current specification. Namely, in case of flexible TDD configuration, especially dynamic TDD reconfiguration, difficulty may arise in determining the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) timing for both DL and UL based on real TDD configuration which may change per radio frame. One possibility to treat with such issues is to sem i-statically configure one TDD configuration as reference, such that HARQ timing can be determined based on this reference TDD configuration. Such reference TDD configuration may be derived based on radio resource control (RRC) signaling, predefined, or determined based on actual TDD configuration. Then the reference TDD configuration may determine the timing to get UL grant and Physical HARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH). At the same time, the reference TDD configuration may also determine the reference resource for CSI report in time domain. As explained in detail below, with some reference TDD configurations, the UL grant would always be sent in the fixed DL subframes. This would result in the fact that the reference resource for aperiodic CQI measurement would always be fixed DL subframes, since according to current specification, the reference resource for aperiodic CQI is the same DL subframe conveying the CSI request, i.e., the DL subframe conveying the UL grant (CSI request is sent as one field in the UL grant). Accordingly, it is presently impossible to get aperiodic CSI report which uses a flexible subframe as reference resource. Hence, the problem arises that at present, when providing an aperiodic CSI/CQI report, the corresponding measurement would be always based fixed subframes, such that no CSI report for flexible subframes is possible.

Hence, there is a need to provide for control of aperiodic CQI reports. In particular, there is a need to provide a method for enabling aperiodic CQI report for both fixed and flexible subframes, e.g., to provide more link adaption gain.

Summary Various exemplary embodiments of the present invention aim at addressing at least part of the above issues and/or problems and drawbacks.

Various aspects of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are set out in the appended claims.

According to an example aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method comprising receiving a message comprising a request for quality measurement, obtaining information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement, and determining a resource for said quality measurement based on said information.

According to an example aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method comprising causing a transmission of a message comprising a request for quality measurement, and providing information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement.

According to an example aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, being configured to cause the apparatus to perform receiving a message comprising a request for quality measurement, obtaining information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement, and determining a resource for said quality measurement based on said information.

According to an example aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, being configured to cause the apparatus to perform causing a transmission of a message comprising a request for quality measurement, and providing information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement. According to an example aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program product comprising computer-executable computer program code which, when the program is run on a computer (e.g. a computer of an apparatus according to any one of the aforementioned apparatus-related exemplary aspects of the present invention), is configured to cause the computer to carry out the method according to any one of the aforementioned method-related exemplary aspects of the present invention. Such computer program product may comprise (or be embodied) a (tangible) computer-readable (storage) medium or the like on which the computer-executable computer program code is stored, and/or the program may be directly loadable into an internal memory of the computer or a processor thereof.

Some of the above aspects enables an efficient channel quality indication measurement and report for both flexible and fixed downlink subframes to thereby solve at least part of the problems and drawbacks identified in relation to the prior art.

By way of some example embodiments of the present invention, there is provided control of aperiodic CQI reports. More specifically, by way of some example embodiments of the present invention, there are provided measures and mechanisms for realizing control of aperiodic CQI reports.

Thus, improvement is achieved by methods, apparatuses and computer program products enabling/realizing control of aperiodic CQI reports.

Brief description of the drawings

In the following, the present invention will be described in greater detail by way of non-limiting examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a procedure according to some example embodiments of the present invention,

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a procedure according to some example embodiments of the present invention,

Figure 3 shows a schematic block diagram illustrating example apparatuses according to some embodiments of the present invention. Detailed description of drawings and embodiments of the present invention

Some embodiments of the present invention are described herein with reference to particular non-limiting examples and to what are presently considered to be conceivable embodiments of the present invention. A person skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention is by no means limited to these examples, and may be more broadly applied.

It is to be noted that the following description of some embodiments of present invention mainly refers to specifications being used as non-limiting examples for certain exemplary network configurations and deployments, e.g. Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A). Namely, some embodiments of present invention are mainly described in relation to 3GPP specifications being used as non-limiting examples for certain exemplary network configurations and deployments. In particular, scenarios utilizing flexible TDD are used as a non-limiting example for the applicability of thus described example embodiments. As such, the description of some embodiments of present invention given herein specifically refers to terminology which is directly related thereto. Such terminology is only used in the context of the presented non-limiting examples, and does naturally not limit the invention in any way. Rather, any other communication or communication related system deployment, etc. may also be utilized as long as compliant with the features described herein. Hereinafter, various embodiments and implementations of the present invention and its aspects or embodiments are described using several variants and/or alternatives. It is generally noted that, according to certain needs and constraints, all of the described variants and/or alternatives may be provided alone or in any conceivable combination (also including combinations of individual features of the various variants and/or alternatives).

According to some example embodiments of the present invention, in general terms, there are provided measures and mechanisms for (enabling/realizing) control of aperiodic CQI reports.

According to current standards, the CSI reference resource for a serving cell is defined as follows:

In the time domain,

for a UE configured in transmission mode 1-9 or transmission mode 10 with a single configured CSI process for the serving cell, the CSI reference resource is defined by a single downlink subframe n-n_CQ/ __ref,

where for periodic CSI reporting n_CQ/ __ref is the smallest value greater than or equal to 4, such that it corresponds to a valid downlink subframe,

where for aperiodic CSI reporting n_CQ, __ref is such that the reference resource is in the same valid downlink subframe as the corresponding CSI request in an uplink DCI format, and

where for aperiodic CSI reporting n_CQ/ __ref is equal to 4 and downlink subframe n-n_CQ, __ref corresponds to a valid downlink subframe, where downlink subframe n-n_CQ, __ref is received after the subframe with the corresponding CSI request in a Random Access Response Grant.

For a UE configured in transmission mode 10 with multiple configured CSI processes for the serving cell, similar definition can be seen, which means in time domain the aperiodic CSI reference resource is the same subframe in which the CSI request is sent. As mentioned, the reference TDD configuration determines the UL HARQ timing and the CSI reference resource. To enable scheduling of any UL subframes, the reference TDD configuration for UL can be selected to be a UL-heavy TDD configuration, e.g. TDD configuration #0. However other configurations like TDD configuration # 1 is also possible.

The following table, defined in 3GPP technical specification TS 36.213, defines the timing to get UL grant for each UL subframe in each TDD configuration. In this regard, it is noted that some embodiments of the present invention are applicable with the configurations as defined in the mentioned table, which is mentioned for the sake of example. However, some embodiments of the present invention may be applicable to configurations different from the below mentioned.

According to this table, if the reference TDD configuration is TDD configuration #0, then the UL grant could be sent in subframe 0, 1, 5 or 6, and these subframes are all fixed DL subframe or special subframes.

If the TDD configuration #1 is indicated in system information block 1 (SIB1), and it is also configured as the reference TDD configuration, then UL grant could be sent in subframe 1, 4 or 6, 9. In case only UL subframe indicated in SIB1 can be set as flexible subframe, subframes 1, 4, 6, 9 would be all fixed subframes which would not change link direction. Accordingly, for such configuration, aperiodic CSI request can only be sent in fixed subframes, and based on the definition of CSI reference resource in time domain, there is the result that CSI reference resource can only be a fixed subframe.

Further, if the UE in transmission mode 10 is configured by higher layers for CSI subframe sets ^Ccs^ and for the CSI process, the configured channel state information interference measurement (CSI-IM) resource within the subframe subset belonging to the CSI reference resource is used to derive the interference measurement.

In other words, the CQI is only based on CSI-IM in CSI reference resource.

Accordingly, it can be observed that with the above mentioned configuration, e.g., when TDD configuration 0 or 1 is set as reference configuration for UL, report of aperiodic CQI for flexible subframe is impossible since the CSI reference resource is always a fixed subframe.

According to some example embodiments of the present invention, an indication is added with respect to the CSI request to indicate whether this request is to trigger CSI for fixed or for flexible subframes. Based on the indication, the corresponding CSI reference resource is found. Consequently, aperiodic CSI for both fixed subframe and flexible subframe is supported.

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a procedure according to some example embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 1, a procedure according to some example embodiments of the present invention comprises an operation of receiving (S11) a message comprising a request for quality measurement, an operation of obtaining (S12) information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement, and an operation of determining (S13) a reference resource for said quality measurement based on said information. According to further example embodiments of the present invention, said type of resources is one of a plurality of predefined subframe sets.

According to further example embodiments of the present invention, said plurality of predefined subframe sets comprises at least one of fixed subframes and flexible subframes.

According to a variation of the procedure shown in Figure 1 , example details of the determining operation (S13) are given, which are inherently independent from each other as such.

Such example determining operation (S13) according to some example embodiments of the present invention may comprise an operation of selecting, as said reference resource, a downlink subframe of said type of resource.

In other words, an additional indication to CSI request is introduced to get an extended CSI request in order to indicate for which subframe set the CSI request is to trigger CQI report, e.g., it is for, for example, flexible or fixed subframes.

According to a variation of the procedure shown in Figure 1 , example details of the selecting operation are given, which are inherently independent from each other as such.

Such example selecting operation according to some example embodiments of the present invention may comprise an operation of defining said reference resource as downlink subframe n - n_CQ, __ref, with

n being a subframe of a transmission of a result of said quality measurement, and

ncQi_ref being a smallest value greater than or equal to a limit value, such that said downlink subframe n - n_CQ/ __ref is of said type of resource.

According to further example embodiments of the present invention, said limit value is 4. In other words, in such case, the CSI reference resource is redefined and determined by the subframe set indicated by the additional indication, e.g., the CSI reference resource is defined by a single downlink subframe n- ricQi ref, where n_CQ, __ref is the smallest value greater than or equal to 4 such that it corresponding to a valid DL subframe in the subframe set indicated by extended CSI request.

The additional indication can be sent via additional bit or sent using available padding bit in the DCI for UL grant.

In other words, according to a variation of the procedure shown in Figure 1, example details of the obtaining operation (S12) are given, which are inherently independent from each other as such.

Such example obtaining operation (S12) according to some example embodiments of the present invention may comprise an operation of selecting deriving said information from said message. According to further example embodiments of the present invention, said information is included in said message as an additional bit.

According to still further example embodiments of the present invention, said information is included in a padding bit in said message.

An indication by an explicit bit is given below in more detail.

For system with 5MHz bandwidth, to get same DCI size for DCI 0 and DCI 1A, one zero padding bit is added to DCI 0 to get 28 bits. According to some example embodiments of the present invention, the added zero padding bit may be reused as additional indication on whether the CSI request is to trigger CSI report for flexible subframe set or fixed subframe set.

For example, when this bit is set as "1", then it is to trigger CQI report for subframe set 0 (e.g., flexible subframes). When DCI is received with such indication, and CSI request is not "00" or "0", UE will report CQI for the corresponding CSI process indicated by CSI request and using one subframe in subframe set 0 as reference resource in time domain, and will measure based on the CSI-IM in subframe set 0.

Otherwise, when this bit is set as "0", then it is to trigger CQI report for subframe set 1 (e.g., fixed subframes). When DCI is received with such indication, and CSI request is not "00" or "0", UE will report CQI for the corresponding CSI process indicated by CSI request and using one subframe in subframe set 1 as reference resource in time domain, and will measure based on the CSI-IM in subframe set 1.

Alternatively, according to a variation of the procedure shown in Figure 1, example details of the obtaining operation (S12) are given, which are inherently independent from each other as such.

Such example obtaining operation (S12) according to some example embodiments of the present invention may comprise an operation of acquiring said information from a predefined configuration or from a higher layer configuration, or an operation of receiving said information in an interference management and traffic adaptation control message.

In other words, the additional indication can be known implicitly by UE based on predefinition or higher layer configuration, or alternatively, the additional indication may be used when an enhanced Interference Management and Traffic Adaptation (elMTA) feature is enabled.

An indication by an implicit additional bit is given below in more detail. According to some example embodiments of the present invention, it is predefined or configured via higher layer signaling that for configuration 0, subframe 2 is to report CQI for flexible subframe set, and subframe 7 is to report CQI for fixed subframe set. Based thereon, when UE gets a CSI request in subframe 1 (scheduling subframe 7), the UE will assume that this is a trigger for CSI report for fixed subframe set. Accordingly, the UE will report the CQI using subframe 1 as reference resource.

On the other hand when UE get CSI request in subframe 6 (scheduling PUSCH in subframe 2), then UE will assume it is to trigger CSI for flexible subframe set. Accordingly, the UE will report CQI with subframe 8 as reference resource.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a procedure according to some example embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 2, a procedure according to some example embodiments of the present invention comprises an operation of causing (S21) a transmission of a message comprising a request for quality measurement, and an operation of providing (S22) information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement. According to further example embodiments of the present invention, said type of resources is one of a plurality of predefined subframe sets.

According to still further example embodiments of the present invention, said information is indicative of a downlink subframe of said type of resource as said reference resource.

According to still further example embodiments of the present invention, said information is indicative of said reference resource as being downlink subframe n - n_CQ, __ref, with

n being a subframe of a transmission of a result of said quality measurement, and ncQi_ref being a smallest value greater than or equal to a limit value, such that said downlink subframe n - n_CQ/ __ref is of said type of resource.

According to still further example embodiments of the present invention, said limit value is 4.

According to a variation of the procedure shown in Figure 2, example details of the providing operation (S22) are given, which are inherently independent from each other as such.

Such example providing operation (S22) according to example embodiments of the present invention may comprise an operation of including said information into said message. According to further example embodiments of the present invention, said information is included into said message as an additional bit.

According to still further example embodiments of the present invention, said information is included into a padding bit in said message.

According to a variation of the procedure shown in Figure 2, example details of the providing operation (S22) are given, which are inherently independent from each other as such. Such example providing operation (S22) according to some example embodiments of the present invention may comprise an operation of communicating said information as a predefined configuration or as a higher layer configuration, or an operation of causing a transmission of said information in an interference management and traffic adaptation control message.

In other words, according to some example embodiments of the present invention, the CSI reference resource for a serving cell is defined as follows.

In the time domain, for a UE configured in transmission mode 1-9 or transmission mode 10 with a single configured CSI process for the serving cell, the CSI reference resource is defined by a single downlink subframe n-n_CQ, __ref,

where for periodic CSI reporting, n_CQ, __ref is the smallest value greater than or equal to 4, such that it corresponds to a valid downlink subframe, and

where for aperiodic CSI reporting, n_CQ/ __ref is the smallest value greater than or equal to 4 such that it corresponding to a valid DL subframe in the subframe set indicated by extended CSI request.

Generally, the above-described procedures and functions may be implemented by respective functional elements, processors, or the like, as described below. While in the foregoing example embodiments of the present invention are described mainly with reference to methods, procedures and functions, corresponding example embodiments of the present invention also cover respective apparatuses, network nodes and systems, including both software, algorithms, and/or hardware thereof.

Respective example embodiments of the present invention are described below referring to Figure 3, while for the sake of brevity reference is made to the detailed description with regard to Figures 1 and 2. In Figure 3 below, which is noted to represent a simplified block diagram, the solid line blocks are basically configured to perform respective operations as described above. The entirety of solid line blocks are basically configured to perform the methods and operations as described above, respectively. With respect to Figure 3, it is to be noted that the individual blocks are meant to illustrate respective functional blocks implementing a respective function, process or procedure, respectively. Such functional blocks are implementation-independent, i.e. may be implemented by means of any kind of hardware or software, respectively. The arrows and lines interconnecting individual blocks are meant to illustrate an operational coupling there-between, which may be a physical and/or logical coupling, which on the one hand is implementation-independent (e.g. wired or wireless) and on the other hand may also comprise an arbitrary number of intermediary functional entities not shown. The direction of arrow is meant to illustrate the direction in which certain operations are performed and/or the direction in which certain data is transferred.

Further, in Figure 3, only those functional blocks are illustrated, which relate to any one of the above-described methods, procedures and functions. A skilled person will acknowledge the presence of any other conventional functional blocks required for an operation of respective structural arrangements, such as e.g. a power supply, a central processing unit, respective memories or the like. Among others, memories are provided for storing programs or program instructions for controlling the individual functional entities to operate as described herein.

Figure 3 shows a schematic block diagram illustrating example apparatuses according to some example embodiments of the present invention.

In view of the above, the thus described apparatuses 40 and 41 are suitable for use in practicing the example embodiments of the present invention, as described herein.

The thus described apparatus 40 may represent a (part of a) device or terminal such as a mobile station MS or user equipment UE or a modem (which may be installed as part of a MS or UE, but may be also a separate module, which can be attached to various devices), and may be configured to perform a procedure and/or functionality as described in conjunction with Figure 1. The thus described apparatus 41 may represent a (part of a) network entity, such as a base station or access node or any network-based controller, e.g. an eNB or NodeB (NB), and may be configured to perform a procedure and/or functionality as described in conjunction with Figure 2.

As indicated in Figure 3, according to some example embodiments of the present invention, the apparatus 40 comprises one or more processors 31 (hereinafter referenced to as a processor 31), one or more memories 32 (hereinafter referenced to as a memory 32) and an interface 33, which are connected by a bus 34 or the like. Further, according to some example embodiments of the present invention, the apparatus 41 comprises one or more processors 35 (hereinafter referenced to as a processor 35), one or more memories 36 (hereinafter referenced to as a memory 36) and an interface 37, which are connected by a bus 38 or the like, and the apparatuses may be connected via link 39, respectively.

The processor 31/35 and/or the interface 33/37 may also include a modem or the like to facilitate communication over a (hardwire or wireless) link, respectively. The interface 33/37 may include a suitable transceiver coupled to one or more antennas or communication means for (hardwire or wireless) communications with the linked or connected device(s), respectively. The interface 33/37 is generally configured to communicate with at least one other apparatus, i.e. the interface thereof.

The memory 32/36 may store respective programs assumed to include program instructions or computer program code that, when executed by the respective processor, enables the respective electronic device or apparatus to operate in accordance with the example embodiments of the present invention.

In general terms, the respective devices/ apparatuses (and/or parts thereof) may represent means for performing respective operations and/or exhibiting respective functionalities, and/or the respective devices (and/or parts thereof) may have functions for performing respective operations and/or exhibiting respective functionalities.

When in the subsequent description it is stated that the processor (or some other means) is configured to perform some function, this is to be construed to be equivalent to a description stating that at least one processor, potentially in cooperation with computer program code stored in the memory of the respective apparatus, is configured to cause the apparatus to perform at least the thus mentioned function. Also, such function is to be construed to be equivalently implementable by specifically configured means for performing the respective function (i.e. the expression "processor configured to [cause the apparatus to] perform xxx-ing" is construed to be equivalent to an expression such as "means for xxx-ing").

According to some example embodiments of the present invention, an apparatus representing the terminal 40 comprises at least one processor 31, at least one memory 32 including computer program code, and at least one interface 33 configured for communication with at least another apparatus. The processor (i.e. the at least one processor 31, with the at least one memory 32 and the computer program code) is configured to perform receiving a message comprising a request for quality measurement, to perform obtaining information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement, and to perform determining a resource for said quality measurement based on said information. In its most basic form, stated in other words, the apparatus 40 may thus comprise respective means for receiving, means for obtaining and means for determining.

As outlined above, the apparatus 40 may further comprise one or more of respective means for selecting, means for defining, means for deriving, and means for acquiring.

According to some example embodiments of the present invention, an apparatus representing the network node 41 comprises at least one processor 35, at least one memory 36 including computer program code, and at least one interface 37 configured for communication with at least another apparatus. The processor (i.e. the at least one processor 35, with the at least one memory 36 and the computer program code) is configured to perform causing a transmission of a message comprising a request for quality measurement, and to perform providing information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement.

In its most basic form, stated in other words, the apparatus 41 may thus comprise respective means for causing, and means for providing. As outlined above, the apparatus 41 may further comprise one or more of respective means for including, and means for communicating.

For further details regarding the operability/f unctionality of the individual apparatuses, reference is made to the above description in connection with any one of Figures 1 and 2, respectively.

According to exemplarily embodiments of the present invention, a system may comprise any conceivable combination of the thus depicted devices/ apparatuses and other network elements, which are configured to cooperate with any one of them.

For the purpose of the present invention as described herein above, it should be noted that

- method steps likely to be implemented as software code portions and being run using a processor at a network server or network entity (as examples of devices, apparatuses and/or modules thereof, or as examples of entities including apparatuses and/or modules therefore), are software code independent and can be specified using any known or future developed programming language as long as the functionality defined by the method steps is preserved;

- generally, any method step is suitable to be implemented as software or by hardware without changing the idea of the embodiments and its modification in terms of the functionality implemented;

- method steps and/or devices, units or means likely to be implemented as hardware components at the above-defined apparatuses, or any module(s) thereof, (e.g., devices carrying out the functions of the apparatuses according to the embodiments as described above) are hardware independent and can be implemented using any known or future developed hardware technology or any hybrids of these, such as MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor), CMOS (Complementary MOS), BiMOS (Bipolar MOS), BiCMOS (Bipolar CMOS), ECL (Emitter Coupled Logic), TTL (Transistor- Transistor Logic), etc., using for example ASIC (Application Specific IC (Integrated Circuit)) components, FPGA (Field-programmable Gate Arrays) components, CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device) components or DSP (Digital Signal Processor) components;

- devices, units or means (e.g. the above-defined network entity or network register, or any one of their respective units/means) can be implemented as individual devices, units or means, but this does not exclude that they are implemented in a distributed fashion throughout the system, as long as the functionality of the device, unit or means is preserved;

- an apparatus like the user equipment and the network entity /network register may be represented by a semiconductor chip, a chipset, or a (hardware) module comprising such chip or chipset; this, however, does not exclude the possibility that a functionality of an apparatus or module, instead of being hardware implemented, be implemented as software in a (software) module such as a computer program or a computer program product comprising executable software code portions for execution/being run on a processor;

- a device may be regarded as an apparatus or as an assembly of more than one apparatus, whether functionally in cooperation with each other or functionally independently of each other but in a same device housing, for example.

In general, it is to be noted that respective functional blocks or elements according to above-described aspects can be implemented by any known means, either in hardware and/or software, respectively, if it is only adapted to perform the described functions of the respective parts. The mentioned method steps can be realized in individual functional blocks or by individual devices, or one or more of the method steps can be realized in a single functional block or by a single device.

Generally, any method step is suitable to be implemented as software or by hardware without changing the idea of the present invention. Devices and means can be implemented as individual devices, but this does not exclude that they are implemented in a distributed fashion throughout the system, as long as the functionality of the device is preserved. Such and similar principles are to be considered as known to a skilled person. Software in the sense of the present description comprises software code as such comprising code means or portions or a computer program or a computer program product for performing the respective functions, as well as software (or a computer program or a computer program product) embodied on a tangible medium such as a computer-readable (storage) medium having stored thereon a respective data structure or code means/portions or embodied in a signal or in a chip, potentially during processing thereof. The present invention also covers any conceivable combination of method steps and operations described above, and any conceivable combination of nodes, apparatuses, modules or elements described above, as long as the above-described concepts of methodology and structural arrangement are applicable.

In view of the above, there are provided measures for control of aperiodic CQI reports. Such measures exemplarily comprise receiving a message comprising a request for quality measurement, obtaining information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement, and determining a resource for said quality measurement based on said information.

Even though the invention is described above with reference to the examples according to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not restricted thereto. Rather, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention can be modified in many ways without departing from the scope of the inventive idea as disclosed herein.

List of acronyms and abbreviations

3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project

CQI channel quality indication

CSI channel state information

CSI-IM configured channel state information interference measurement

CSI-RS channel state information reference signal DCI downlink control information

DL downlink

elMTA enhanced Interference Management and Traffic Adaptation eNB eNodeB, evolved NodeB

HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request

LTE Long Term Evolution

LTE-A Long Term Evolution Advanced

NB NodeB

PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

PHICH Physical HARQ Indicator Channel

PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

RRC radio resource control

SIB1 system information block 1

TDD flexible time division duplex

UE user equipment

UL uplink

Claims

WHAT I S CLAI MED I S:

1. A method comprising

receiving a message comprising a request for quality measurement, obtaining information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement, and

determining a resource for said quality measurement based on said information.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein

said type of resources is one of a plurality of predefined subframe sets.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein

said plurality of predefined subframe sets comprises at least one of fixed subframes and flexible subframes.

4. The method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein

in relation to said determining, said method further comprises selecting, as said resource, a downlink subframe of said type of resource.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein

in relation to said selecting, said method further comprises

defining said resource as downlink subframe

ncQi_ref being a smallest value greater than or equal to a limit value, such that said downlink subframe n - n_CQ, __ref is of said type of resource.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein

said limit value is 4.

7. The method according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein in relation to said obtaining, said method further comprises

deriving said information from said message.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein

said information is included in said message as an additional bit.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein

said information is included in a padding bit in said message.

10. The method according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein

in relation to said obtaining, said method further comprises

acquiring said information from a predefined configuration or from a higher layer configuration, or

receiving said information in an interference management and traffic adaptation control message.

11. A method comprising

causing a transmission of a message comprising a request for quality measurement, and

providing information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein

said type of resources is one of a plurality of predefined subframe sets.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein

14. The method according to any of claims 11 to 13, wherein

said information is indicative of a downlink subframe of said type of resource as said resource.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein said information is indicative of said resource as being downlink subframe

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein

said limit value is 4.

17. The method according to any of claims 11 to 16, wherein

in relation to said providing, said method further comprises

including said information into said message.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein

said information is included into said message as an additional bit.

19. The method according to claim 17, wherein

said information is included into a padding bit in said message.

20. The method according to any of claims 11 to 16, wherein

in relation to said providing, said method further comprises

communicating said information as a predefined configuration or as a higher layer configuration, or

causing a transmission of said information in an interference management and traffic adaptation control message.

21. An apparatus comprising

at least one processor, and

at least one memory including computer program code,

the at least one processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, being configured to cause the apparatus to perform

determining a resource for said quality measurement based on said information.

22. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said type of resources is one of a plurality of predefined subframe sets.

23. The apparatus according to claim 22, wherein

24. The apparatus according to any of claims 21 to 23, wherein

in relation to said determining, the at least one processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, being configured to cause the apparatus to perform

selecting, as said resource, a downlink subframe of said type of resource.

25. The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein

in relation to said selecting, the at least one processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, being configured to cause the apparatus to perform

defining said resource as downlink subframe

26. The apparatus according to claim 25, wherein

said limit value is 4.

27. The apparatus according to any of claims 21 to 26, wherein in relation to said obtaining, the at least one processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, being configured to cause the apparatus to perform

deriving said information from said message.

28. The apparatus according to claim 27, wherein

said information is included in said message as an additional bit.

29. The apparatus according to claim 27, wherein

said information is included in a padding bit in said message.

30. The apparatus according to any of claims 21 to 26, wherein

in relation to said obtaining, the at least one processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, being configured to cause the apparatus to perform

31. The apparatus according to any of claims 21 to 30, wherein

the apparatus is operable as or at a terminal, user equipment, mobile station or modem, and/or

the apparatus is operable in at least one of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) and a Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) cellular system, and/or the apparatus is operable in a flexible time division duplex scenario.

32. An apparatus comprising

at least one processor, and

at least one memory including computer program code,

causing a transmission of a message comprising a request for quality measurement, and providing information indicative of a type of resource for said quality measurement.

33. The apparatus according to claim 32, wherein

said type of resources is one of a plurality of predefined subframe sets.

34. The apparatus according to claim 33, wherein

35. The apparatus according to any of claims 32 to 34, wherein

36. The apparatus according to claim 35, wherein

said information is indicative of said resource as being downlink subframe

37. The apparatus according to claim 36, wherein

said limit value is 4.

38. The apparatus according to any of claims 32 to 37, wherein

in relation to said providing, the at least one processor, with the at least one memory and the computer program code, being configured to cause the apparatus to perform

including said information into said message.

39. The apparatus according to claim 38, wherein

said information is included into said message as an additional bit.

40. The apparatus according to claim 38, wherein

said information is included into a padding bit in said message.

41. The apparatus according to any of claims 32 to 37, wherein

42. The apparatus according to any of claims 32 to 41 , wherein

the apparatus is operable as or at a base station or access node of a cellular system, and/or

43. A computer program product comprising computer-executable computer program code which, when the program is run on a computer, is configured to cause the computer to carry out the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10 or 11 to 20.

44. The computer program product according to claim 43, wherein the computer program product comprises a computer-readable medium on which the computer-executable computer program code is stored, and/or wherein the program is directly loadable into an internal memory of the processor.