WO2016120109A1

WO2016120109A1 - Method for providing a number of repetitions, a node and a computer program product

Info

Publication number: WO2016120109A1
Application number: PCT/EP2016/050884
Authority: WO
Inventors: Shin Horng Wong; Matthew Baker
Original assignee: Alcatel Lucent SAS
Current assignee: Alcatel Lucent SAS
Priority date: 2015-01-30
Filing date: 2016-01-18
Publication date: 2016-08-04
Anticipated expiration: 2017-07-30
Also published as: EP3051728A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for providing, on a physical downlink channel between a node in a wireless telecommunication network and user equipment, a number of repetitions for a physical data channel between the node and the user equipment. In the method, a base repetition value is determined using a modulation and coding scheme index and a number of physical resource blocks. The number of repetitions is then calculated using the base repetition value and a number of repetitions of the physical downlink control channel.

Description

METHOD FOR PROVIDING A NUMBER OF REPETITIONS, A NODE AND A COMPUTER

PROGRAM PRODUCT

TECHNICAL FIELD

Aspects relate, in general, to a method for providing a number of repetitions, a node and a computer program product.

BACKGROUND

Wireless telecommunications systems are known. In a cellular system, radio coverage is provided to user equipment, for example, mobile phones, by areas known as cells. A base station is located in each cell to provide the radio coverage. User equipment in each cell receives information and data from the base station and transmits information and data to the base station. Information and data transmitted by the base station to the user equipment occurs on channels of radio carriers known as downlink channels. Information and data transmitted by user equipment to the base station occurs on channels of radio carriers known as uplink channels. Although the deployment of base stations is largely controllable by the network operator, the deployment of user equipment is not. The deployment of user equipment within the network can cause unexpected consequences.

Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved technique for communicating with user equipment. EP2787672 describes a method and apparatus for encoding a number of repetitions for transmissions on a downlink channel between a base station and user equipment.

SUMMARY

According to an example, there is provided a method as provided in claim 1 . The number of repetitions for the physical data channel can be calculated using a predefined function relating the base repetition value and the number of repetitions of the physical downlink control channel. A lookup table can be used to determine the base value. The lookup table can be predefined in the network specification and thus known to network entities such as UE, or may be replaced by a function that can be used to calculate the base value. The modulation and coding scheme index and number of physical resource blocks map to or can be used to calculate a base repetition value. At least one additional repetition parameter can be transmitted to the user equipment representing a reference retransmission rate and/or a repetition factor for use with the predefined function. The reference retransmission rate and/or a repetition factor can be predefined/preselected parameters. It should be appreciated that radio propagation conditions such as a fading profile can affect the repetition required for PDSCH and PUSCH and therefore a single mapping/function that provides a single set of repetitions for PDSCH and PUSCH may not be flexible enough. These additional parameters allow the network to adapt the repetition of the PDSCH/PUSCH to different conditions of the radio propagation channel.

The number of repetitions can be performed in the frequency domain first, whereby to use up all physical resource blocks (PRBs) so as to occupy the entire subband, followed by repetitions in the time domain.

According to an example, there is provided user equipment as provided in claim 6. The user equipment (UE) can be a low cost/complexity (LC) device. For example, the LC-UE can be a machine type communication (MTC) UE. The user equipment can calculate the number of repetitions for the physical data channel using a predefined function relating the modulation coding scheme index and number of physical resource blocks and number of repetitions of the physical downlink control channel. The user equipment can determine a base repetition value using the modulation coding scheme index and number of physical resource blocks. The user equipment can calculate the number of repetitions using the base repetition value and number of repetitions of the physical downlink control channel. The user equipment can receive at least one additional repetition parameter representing a reference retransmission rate and/or a repetition factor for use with the predefined function.

According to an example, there is provided a computer program product as provided in claim 1 1 . BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a portion of a wireless telecommunication network according to an example; and

Figure 2 is a schematic representation of PDSCH repetition according to an example. DESCRIPTION

Example embodiments are described below in sufficient detail to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to embody and implement the systems and processes herein described. It is important to understand that embodiments can be provided in many alternate forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein.

Accordingly, while embodiments can be modified in various ways and take on various alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown in the drawings and described in detail below as examples. There is no intent to limit to the particular forms disclosed. On the contrary, all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the appended claims should be included. Elements of the example embodiments are consistently denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the drawings and detailed description where appropriate.

The terminology used herein to describe embodiments is not intended to limit the scope. The articles "a," "an," and "the" are singular in that they have a single referent, however the use of the singular form in the present document should not preclude the presence of more than one referent. In other words, elements referred to in the singular can number one or more, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises," "comprising," "includes," and/or "including," when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, items, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, items, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein are to be interpreted as is customary in the art. It will be further understood that terms in common usage should also be interpreted as is customary in the relevant art and not in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

User equipment (UE) can be deployed in areas suffering from high attenuation. This high attenuation can cause the UE to be unable to decode downlink configuration information, which is essential for being able to access appropriate downlink traffic. This means that when deployed in these areas of high attenuation, the UE is effectively unable to receive traffic from the base station. Existing standards fail to provide an adequate technique for providing this downlink configuration information in high attenuation deployments, which means that UE implementing those standards are unable to communicate with the network during such deployment. Whilst this is inconvenient for some UE when located in these high attenuation areas, coverage may be restored when the UE moves to a lower attenuation area. However, there is a class of UE (such as low cost and/or complexity machine type communication (MTC) devices such as, for example, smart meters) which are immobile once installed; for those user equipment no or limited network coverage is provided.

Existing solutions target a 15-20 dB coverage improvement for such devices. Repetition of a message at the physical layer is one technique providing such coverage improvement. In order to achieve a 20 dB improvement, the theoretical number of repetitions needed is 100 times more than currently used. In reality, this amount of repetition is likely going to need to be even higher due to imperfect channel estimation, fading, frequency error, etc. Although repetition is a simple way to improve the coverage, it is highly inefficient in utilizing the spectrum especially when the amount of repetitions is very high (in the hundreds). For some access channels in a network, multiple coverage levels can be provided, where in each level, the UE uses a different number of repetitions (with the highest coverage level using the maximum number of repetition) for spectral efficiency purposes.

Recently, there has been interest in providing several coverage levels for each physical channel of the network. In order to reduce power consumption in a coverage enhanced mode of operation, the number of repetitions can be reduced. Therefore optimizing the number of repetitions to the UE radio condition for data channel such as PDSCH and PUSCH is highly beneficial for power consumption and spectral efficiency.

In a semi-static configuration, in which a UE is largely immobile, a node, such as an eNB, may configure the number of repetitions of the PDSCH and PUSCH using RRC messaging for example. However, the number of repetitions would need to be conservative since reconfiguring the repetition level requires costly RRC signaling. If some UE mobility may be expected, a semi-static approach may not be suitable. A dynamic configuration may indicate the number of repetitions or repetition level of the PDSCH or PUSCH in the DCI. This allows for flexibility at the eNB. However, there is a trend to minimise the DCI size and hence additional bits to indicate the number of repetition may not be acceptable. Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a portion of a wireless telecommunication network according to an example. A network node 1 00, such as an eNB provides coverage for a cell which consists of the existing (termed as 'normal') coverage and the targeted coverage extension (due to for example, an MTC UE device located at the cell edge such as in a basement).

For those UE devices in the normal coverage, no additional coverage enhancement is required. For those devices in the extended coverage region as shown Figure 1 , not all devices require as much as 20 dB coverage extension. Some devices (e.g. MTC 2 located in the region shaded in Figure 1 ) will require coverage extension that is less than 20 dB and hence a message to/from these devices would require less repetitions compared to a MTC device in the 20 dB region.

As an example, in Figure 1 , MTC1 requires a 20 dB improvement and MTC2 requires a 13 dB coverage improvement, so the number of repetitions for MTC2 is 4 times less than that of MTCI. The amount of resource saving from using less than the maximum number of repetitions for MTC2 is significant since the maximum number of repetitions is large (i.e. in the hundreds), thereby improving spectral efficiency significantly. Hence, providing different levels of coverage extension for MTC devices is desirable. Also, different channels will experience different levels of attenuation and so will require different numbers of repetitions in each coverage extension region. As noted, optimizing the number of repetitions to the UE radio condition for data channel such as PDSCH and PUSCH is highly beneficial for power consumption and spectral efficiency.

Furthermore, reducing an overhead associated with signaling a change in repetition rate is advantageous. Accordingly, an efficient method that does not contribute to network overhead for indicating the number of repetitions for PDSCH and PUSCH is provided.

According to an example, repetition of a data channel, such as PDSCH and PUSCH for example, is a function of the Transport Channel Properties (e.g. modulation coding scheme (MCS) and number of PRBs, N_PRB) and the repetition of the physical control channel that carries scheduling information for the said data channel. The physical downlink control channel can be PDCCH, EPDCCH or a physical channel for a low cost/complexity UE, e.g. MPDCCH. The channel is referred to herein as EPDCCH; however, it will be appreciated that any physical control channel (PDCCH, MPDCCH and so) may be used.

In an example, Transport Channel Property parameters, such as MCS and N_PRB along with the physical control channel repetition rate can be obtained as noted below:

The MCS & N_PRB are indicated in the DCI (Downlink Control Information) carried by the EPDCCH;

- The EPDCCH repetition is blindly decoded by the UE (note: the EPDCCH

repetition may alternatively be indicated via RRC signaling if multiple repetitions are not blindly decoded). Accordingly, the number of repetitions of the data channel can be determined dynamically by UE without a high signaling overhead, and in a way that can be designed to match the number of repetitions required for reliable reception: for example, a higher code rate (a function of the transport block size and number of PRBs) is likely to need a higher number of repetitions.

Different aggregation levels of EPDCCH for a UE, particularly a LC-UE such as an MTC UE for example, in coverage enhanced mode (CE-mode) can be achieved in time (i.e. repetition) rather than in frequency because the UE will:

Operate in a reduced bandwidth of 1 .4 MHz (or 6 PRBs) In CE-mode, EPDCCH would be transmitted in all 6 PRBs (i.e. in frequency domain the Aggregation Level is fixed)

The function can be predefined with required parameters broadcast by the network in the SIB or signaled to the UE via dedicated signaling (e.g. RRC configuration).

In an example, the MCS & N_PRB are parameters to a lookup table which provides a base repetition number, R_BASE. The overall repetition R_T (of the PDSCH or PUSCH) is a function of R_BASE cmd the EPDCCH repetition R_EPDCCH- '^{n an} example, the lookup table can be fixed in the network specification and any additional parameters for the said function can be broadcast or signaled to the UE.

In another example, multiple functions utilizing R_BASE and R_EPDCCH ^{can De} used and an eNB can indicate in the DCI or RRC signaling which one of multiple functions to use to determine the PDSCH repetition R_T.

In another example, the determined PDSCH repetition using the said function is performed such that it is repeated in frequency first (i.e. fill up the whole subband) before repeating in time. For example if 2 PRBs are allocated to the UE for PDSCH and the number of repetitions is 15, the repetition would be performed as shown in Figure 2, which is a schematic representation of repetition of PDSCH according to an example. In the example of figure 2, the 2 PRB PDSCH is repeated 3x in the frequency domain (thereby occupying the entire subband) followed by 5x repetitions in time domain giving the total of 15x repetitions. This is applicable in the downlink. In the uplink (for PUSCH) using fewer PRBs would result in a higher PSD boosting.

Transport Block Size is determined by the TBS index, /_TBS and the N_PRB (number of allocated PRBs). The /_TBS is determined from the allocated MCS. According to an example, the /_TBS and N_PRB can be used as input to a lookup table to determine R_BAs_E, where this lookup table is predefined in the specification. It should be appreciated that the lookup table for R_BASE can be replaced by a function.

As part of the UE EPDCCH decoding process, it would have blindly decoded the number of EPDCCH repetiti ons, R_EPDCCH■ The RB SE ^and REPDCCH parameters are then input into a function such as Equation 1 noted below. Here β and a reference repetition level, R_REF, are parameters signaled to the UE either via broadcast from the SIB or via RRC signaling for example. The function |_J rounds down the repetition to the nearest valid number of PDSCH repetitions (there may be a finite set of valid number of PDSCH repetitions). In alternative embodiment, the number of repetitions could be rounded up to the next valid number of PDSCH repetitions.

"^■BASE"-EPDCCH

REF

(1]

Hence using Equation 1, the UE is able to determine the repetition of PDSCH or PUSCH based on the MCS, N_PRB and the EPDCCH repetition. This avoids the need to explicitly signal a repetition value to the UE in the DCI.

It should be appreciated that Equation 1 is an example function that takes into the input parameter R_BASE and R_EPDCCH ond other similar functions that takes at least MCS, N_PRB and REPDCCH parameters as input can be used.

A second function such as the one in Equation 2 can be defined in an example. The eNB can indicate (e.g. using 1 bit) which function it wants the UE to use to determine the PDSCH Repetition.

β R EPDCCH J (2) Accordingly, a network node, such as an eNB can dynamically adjust the repetition of PDSCH and PUSCH without adding bits to a DCI message.

A repetition (or coverage) rate according to an example can be in the form of a numerical index which indicates the amount of repetition for physical channels except, typically, the primary and secondary synchronization signals (PSS/SSS) and physical broadcast channel (PBCH).

The present inventions can be embodied in other specific apparatus and/or methods. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. In particular, the scope of the invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than by the description and figures herein. All changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.

Claims

1 . A method for providing, on a physical downlink control channel between a node in a wireless telecommunication network and user equipment, a number of repetitions for a physical data channel between the node and the user equipment, the method comprising:

determining a base repetition value of the physical data channel using a modulation and coding scheme index and a number of physical resource blocks; and calculating the number of repetitions using the base repetition value and a number of repetitions of the physical downlink control channel.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the number of repetitions for the physical data channel is calculated using a predefined function relating the base repetition value and the number of repetitions of the physical downlink control channel.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the modulation and coding scheme index and number of physical resource blocks map to or are used to calculate the base repetition value.

4. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, further comprising:

transmitting at least one additional repetition parameter to the user equipment representing a reference retransmission rate and/or a repetition factor for use with the predefined function.

5. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the number of repetitions for the physical data channel is performed in the frequency domain first, whereby to use up all PRBs so as to occupy the entire sub-band, followed by repetitions in the time domain.

6. User equipment (MTC1 , MTC2), in a wireless telecommunication network, the user equipment in a connected mode of operation with a node (1 00) of the network using a physical downlink control channel, wherein the user equipment is operable to calculate a number of repetitions for a physical data channel between the node and the user equipment using a modulation coding scheme index and number of physical resource blocks received a† the user equipment and a number of repetitions of the physical downlink control channel.

7. User equipment (MTC1, MTC2) as claimed in claim 6, wherein the user equipment is a low cost/complexity (LC) device.

8. User equipment (MTC1, MTC2) as claimed in claim 6 or 7, wherein the user equipment is operable to calculate the number of repetitions for the physical data channel using a predefined function relating the modulation coding scheme index and number of physical resource blocks and number of repetitions of the physical downlink control channel .

9. User equipment (MTC1 , MTC2) as claimed in any of claims 6 to 8, wherein the user equipment is operable to determine a base repetition value using the modulation coding scheme index and number of physical resource blocks.

10. User equipment (MTC1 , MTC2) as claimed in any of claims 6 to 9, wherein the user equipment is operable to receive at least one additional repetition parameter representing a reference retransmission rate and/or a repetition factor for use with the predefined function.

11. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5.