The present disclosure is directed to a method of resource allocation for device to device communication, a user equipment using the same method, and a base station using the same method.
Device to Device (D2D) or Peer to Peer (P2P) communication is a blossoming technology for future communication systems and enables user equipment (UE) to directly communicate with another without requiring a base station to relay user data in between. To multiplex among users for D2D communications, various schemes including time division multiplex (TDM) or frequency division multiplex (FDM) have been considered. TDM resource allocation could be utilized because of its simplicity, less inter-user interferences, single timing tracking, and so forth. The IEEE 802.11 for example applies the TDM solution. However, since the TDM solution applies to a whole band, transmission power is spread to the whole band and transmission range is limited to how large the bandwidth is applied.
Alternatively, the FDM approach may multiplex multiple users to use the same time slot by transmitting signals in different channels of a frequency spectrum with a narrower bandwidth used for each user. However, FDM would typically result in multi-user interferences. In particular, if a device receives two signals from two users for example, the larger received power may suppress the lower received power.
The other case related to D2D communication is the variation of signal arrival times for difference devices. As there are many D2D UEs with different inter-distances among different D2D UE pairs, each of the different D2D communication pairs would result in a different propagation delay. If propagation delays among D2D communication pairs are too large, extra receiver complexities may be necessary.
The present disclosure is directed to a method of resource allocation for device to device (D2D) communication, a user equipment using the same method, and a base station using the same method.
In one of the exemplary embodiments, the present disclosure is directed to a method of resource allocation for D2D communication that is applicable to a user equipment. The method would include at least but not limited to receiving a group of wireless signals, receiving from the group of wireless signals a first signal that has a highest power, transmitting a second signal comprising the first signal that has the highest power, and receiving a D2D resource allocation based on the second signal in response to transmitting the second signal. The first signal detected with the highest power may belong to a synchronous head.
In one of the exemplary embodiments, the present disclosure is directed to a user equipment that includes at least but not limited to a transmitter for transmitting wireless signal, a receiver for receiving wireless signal, and a processor coupled to the transmitter and the receiver and is configured for receiving via the receiver a group of wireless signals, receiving from the group of wireless signals a first signal that has a highest power, transmitting via the transmitter a second signal comprising the first signal that has the highest power, and receiving via the receiver a device to device (D2D) resource allocation in response to transmitting the second signal. The first signal detected with the highest power may belong to a synchronous head.
In one of the exemplary embodiments, the present disclosure is directed to a method of resource allocation for D2D communication that is applicable to a base station. The method would include at least but not limited to receiving a group of wireless signals, wherein each of the group of wireless signals comprises a report, wherein the report comprises a set of signals which have been received, receiving from the group of wireless signals a first signal that has a highest power, and transmitting a second signal comprising a D2D resource allocation based on the first signal in response to receiving the group of wireless signals. The first signal detected with the highest power may belong to a synchronous head.
In one of the exemplary embodiments, the present disclosure is directed to a base station that includes at least but not limited to a transmitter for transmitting wireless signal, a receiver for receiving wireless signal, and a processor coupled to the transmitter and the receiver and is configured for receiving via the receiver a group of wireless signals, wherein each of the group of wireless signals comprises a report, wherein the report comprises a set of signals which have been received, receiving from the group of wireless signals a first signal that has the highest power, and transmitting via the transmitter a second signal comprising a D2D resource allocation based on the first signal in response to receiving the group of wireless signals. The first signal detected with the highest power may belong to a synchronous head.
In order to make the aforementioned features and advantages of the present disclosure comprehensible, exemplary embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the disclosure as claimed.
It should be understood, however, that this summary may not contain all of the aspect and embodiments of the present disclosure and is therefore not meant to be limiting or restrictive in any manner. Also the present disclosure would include improvements and modifications which are obvious to one skilled in the art.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present exemplary embodiments of the disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
When operating under timing synchronous D2D communication, there could be different pairs of D2D UEs having different inter-distances. First of all, it has been well known that the near-far effect may induce signal imbalances which would cause various D2D UEs to suffer from signal suppression as the result of automatic gain control (AGC) and analog to digital (A/D) converter to further filter weaker discovery signals. Second, different inter-distances among D2D communication pairs may also introduce different timing propagation delays and the associated reception performance losses. In order to reduce the effects coming from different inter-distances, a resource allocation mechanism is necessary for device discovery. These aforementioned case could be further elaborated according to
In one of the exemplary embodiments, one resource allocation scheme for the scenario of
However, if one discovery signal is significantly weaker than the other. In that case, the weaker signal could be suppressed or eliminated to become undetectable after digitized by an A/D converter.
Furthermore, if the inter-distances d12, d13,˜d1x among UE D2D pairs have large variations among them. In this case, the receiver of the UE 102 would need to be unnecessarily complex.
Therefore, the present disclosure proposes arranging D2D UEs to be close to one synchronous head to perform D2D communications. A synchronous head could be any peer device assigned by a base station or a small cell base station in order to serve as a device for synchronization or data relay. For example, under the proposed circumstance, D2D UEs assigned by a base station to be served under a leading UE or synchronous head would transmit discovery signals at about the same time. Since the these D2D UEs assigned by a base station to a synchronous head are close to one another, the timing arrivals and power fluctuations will be limited to a fixed range. In other words, there would be significantly less timing arrival differences or less dynamic range of power fluctuations at receptions relative to the scenario without a synchronous head. In this way, a D2D UE would also be able to receive signals with higher power and greater signal to noise ratio than the scenario without having a synchronous head.
In this disclosure, 3GPP-like keywords or phrases are used merely as examples to present inventive concepts in accordance with the present disclosure; however, the same concept presented in the disclosure can be applied to any other systems such as IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16, WiMAX, and so like by persons of ordinarily skilled in the art. For exemplary purposes, a LTE communication system would be used as examples for the rest of the disclosure. Therefore, as an example a base station under a LTE system would typically be an evolved Node B (eNB).
The exemplary UE 400 may contain at least but not limited to a transceiver circuit 403 (or a transmitter and receiver), an analog-to-digital (A/D)/digital-to-analog (D/A) converter 402, and a processor 401 (or a processing circuit). The transceiver circuit 403 transmits and receives signals wirelessly. The transceiver 403 circuit may also perform operations such as low noise amplifying, impedance matching, frequency mixing, up or down frequency conversion, filtering, amplifying, and so like. The A/D/D/A converter 402 is electrically coupled to the transceiver circuit 403 and would be able to convert from an analog signal format to a digital signal format or from a digital signal format to an analog signal format.
The processor 401 would be electrically coupled to the A/D/D/A converter 402 and would be configured to process digital signal and to perform at least but not limited to functions related to the proposed method of resource allocation for device to device (D2D) communication in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. The functions of the processor 401 could be implemented using programmable units such as a micro-processor, a micro-controller, a DSP chips, FPGA, etc. The functions of the processor 401 could be integrated under one electronic device or one integrated circuit (IC) but may also be implemented with separate electronic devices or ICs.
The processor 401 may further include at least but not limited to a power level determining module 411 and a resource allocation module 412 as illustrated in
An exemplary eNB 500 would contain at least but not limited to a transceiver 503 circuit (or a transmitter and receiver), an analog-to-digital (A/D)/digital-to-analog (D/A) converter 502, a processor 501 or processing circuit. The transceiver circuit 503 transmits and receives signals wirelessly. The transceiver circuit 503 may also perform operations such as low noise amplifying, impedance matching, frequency mixing, up or down frequency conversion, filtering, amplifying, and so like. The A/D/D/A converter 502 would be electrically coupled to the transceiver circuit 503 and would be able to convert from an analog signal format to a digital signal format or from a digital signal format to an analog signal format.
The processing circuit 501 would be electrically coupled to the A/D/D/A converter 502 and would be configured to process digital signals and to perform functions of the proposed method of resource allocation for device to device (D2D) communication in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. The functions of the processor 501 could be implemented using programmable units such as a micro-processor, a micro-controller, a DSP chips, FPGA, etc. The functions of the processor 501 could be integrated under one electronic device or one integrated circuit (IC) but may also be implemented with separate electronic devices or ICs.
The processor 501 may further include at least but not limited to a power level determining module 511 and a resource allocation module 512 as illustrated in
A synchronous head could be assigned by a base station based on location. For example, according to
As for the synchronization relationship between a base station, a synchronous head, and D2D UEs served under the synchronous head and the base station, a hierarchical synchronization scheme is proposed.
In one of the exemplary embodiment, the assignment of a synchronous head may not be static but could change from time to time. For example, assuming that a group of D2D UEs has been assigned by a base station to follow a synchronous head. The base station could choose one of the D2D UEs from this group to serve as the synchronous head instead, and the device that has previously been assigned as the synchronous head could then become one of the UEs of the group.
In one of the exemplary embodiments, an assigned synchronous head could be selected as a UE relay. In this way, the synchronous head may collect user data from a base station or from another UE targeted aimed toward a targeted UE. The synchronous head may then forward the collected user data for the targeted UE camping on this synchronous head. In the same way, the synchronous head may also forward user data from the targeted UE to a base station or to another UE.
In one of the exemplary embodiment, a synchronous head could be selected by a base station to serve as a cluster head to coordinate a group of D2D UEs.
In view of the aforementioned descriptions, the present disclosure is suitable for being used in a wireless communication system and is able to allocate D2D resources and achieve synchronization in such as a way that the near-far effect would be reduced and the variations of inter-distances among different UE pairs are minimized so that different timing propagation delays would not cause associated reception performance losses.
No element, act, or instruction used in the detailed description of disclosed embodiments of the present application should be construed as absolutely critical or essential to the present disclosure unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, each of the indefinite articles “a” and “an” could include more than one item. If only one item is intended, the terms “a single” or similar languages would be used. Furthermore, the terms “any of” followed by a listing of a plurality of items and/or a plurality of categories of items, as used herein, are intended to include “any of”, “any combination of”, “any multiple of”, and/or “any combination of multiples of the items and/or the categories of items, individually or in conjunction with other items and/or other categories of items. Further, as used herein, the term “set” is intended to include any number of items, including zero. Further, as used herein, the term “number” is intended to include any number, including zero.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Moreover, the claims should not be read as limited to the described order or elements unless stated to that effect. In addition, use of the term “means” in any claim is intended to invoke 35 U.S.C. §112, ¶6, and any claim without the word “means” is not so intended.
This application claims the priority benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 61/879,129, filed on Sep. 17, 2013. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of specification.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61879129 | Sep 2013 | US |