Multi-user multiplexing of orthogonal time frequency space signals

Abstract

A method for performing downlink transmissions from a transmitting device to multiple user devices using transmission resources from a multi-dimensional grid of resources is described. The method includes logically partitioning the transmission resources into multiple segments, assigning, to a given user device of the multiple user devices, transmission resources of one or more of the multiple segments, and performing, using at least some of the assigned transmission resources for the given user device, a downlink transmission using an orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) transformation on data or signals to be transmitted to the given user device.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present document relates to wireless communication, and more particularly, transmission and reception of multi-user signals in single-input-single-output (SISO) and multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems.

BACKGROUND

Due to an explosive growth in the number of wireless user devices and the amount of wireless data that these devices can generate or consume, current wireless communication networks are fast running out of bandwidth to accommodate such a high growth in data traffic and provide high quality of service to users.

Various efforts are underway in the telecommunication industry to come up with next generation of wireless technologies that can keep up with the demand on performance of wireless devices and networks.

SUMMARY

This document discloses techniques for multiplexing, in the uplink and/or downlink direction, signals from/to multiple user devices.

In one example aspect, a method for performing downlink transmissions from a transmitting device to multiple user devices using transmission resources from a multi-dimensional grid of resources is disclosed. The method includes logically partitioning the transmission resources into multiple segments, assigning, to a given user device of the multiple user devices, transmission resources of one or more of the multiple segments, and performing, using at least some of the assigned transmission resources for the given user device, a downlink transmission using an orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) transformation on data or signals to be transmitted to the given user device.

In another aspect, a wireless communication method for performing uplink transmissions from multiple user devices using transmission resources from a multi-dimensional grid of resources to a receiving device is disclosed. The method includes logically partitioning the transmission resources into multiple segments, assigning, to a given user device of the multiple user devices, transmission resources of one or more of the multiple segments, and performing, an uplink transmission from the given user device using at least some of the assigned transmission resources for the given user device, wherein the uplink transmission includes data that has undergone an orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) transform.

In yet another aspect, a method for performing transmissions between a wireless device to multiple user devices is disclosed. The method includes logically grouping the multiple user devices into a first group of user devices and a second group of user devices, allocating a first group of transmission resources to the first group of user devices and a second group of transmission resources to the second group of user devices by multiplexing along a first dimension of a first multi-dimensional representation of transmission resources, allocating, from the first group of transmission resources, transmissions resources to user devices in the first group by multiplexing along a second dimension in a second multi-dimensional representation of the transmission resources, and performing a transmission between the wireless device and at least one user device using corresponding allocated transmission resources.

In yet another aspect, a wireless communication method, implemented at a network-side equipment, for receiving an orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) signal comprising a multiplex of uplink transmissions from multiple user equipment, is disclosed. The method includes performing joint equalization on the multiplex to generate jointly equalized symbols, extracting, from the jointly equalized symbols, symbols corresponding to a given transmitting device based on extrinsic information about transmission resource location of the symbols, demapping the extracted symbols and performing forward error correction to generate output bits, and generating a feedback signal based on the output bits for improving the joint equalization in a next iteration.

In yet another aspect, a method for receiving an orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) signal comprising a multiplex of transmissions for multiple receiving devices is disclosed. The method includes performing joint equalization on the multiplex to generate jointly equalized symbols, extracting, from the jointly equalized symbols, symbols corresponding to one or more receiving devices, and demapping the extracted symbols and performing forward error correction to generate output bits, and generating a feedback signal based on the output bits for improving the joint equalization in a next iteration.

In yet another aspect, a wireless device comprising a processor configured to implement one of the above-described methods is disclosed.

In yet another aspect, a computer-readable memory storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to implement one of the described methods is disclosed.

These, and other, features and embodiments are described in this document.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Drawings described herein are used to provide a further understanding and constitute a part of this application. Example embodiments and illustrations thereof are used to explain the technology rather than limiting its scope.

FIG. 1 shows an example communication network.

FIG. 2 shows an example of transmission resource allocation based on multiplexing in the delay-Doppler grid along the delay dimension.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a multi-user uplink communication system.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a multi-user downlink communication system.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example implementation of a multi-user iterative receiver.

FIG. 6 shows an example of allocation of transmission resource in the time-frequency grid along the frequency dimension.

FIG. 7 shows an example of allocation of transmission resources for transmissions between one or more user devices and a wireless device by multiplexing both in the delay-Doppler domain and in the time-frequency domain.

FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of an example wireless communication downlink transmission method.

FIG. 9 shows a flowchart of an example wireless communication uplink transmission method.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a wireless transceiver apparatus.

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of an example of a wireless communication method.

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of an example of a wireless communication method.

FIG. 13 shows a flowchart of an example of a wireless communication method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

To make the purposes, technical solutions and advantages of this disclosure more apparent, various embodiments are described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Unless otherwise noted, embodiments and features in embodiments of the present document may be combined with each other.

Section headings are used in the present document, including the appendices, to improve readability of the description and do not in any way limit the discussion to the respective sections only.

FIG. 1 shows an example communication network 100 in which the disclosed technologies can be implemented. The network 100 may include a base station transmitter that transmits wireless signals s(t) (downlink signals) to one or more receivers 102, the received signal being denoted as r(t), which may be located in a variety of locations, including inside or outside a building and in a moving vehicle. The receivers may transmit uplink transmissions to the base station, typically located near the wireless transmitter. The technology described herein may be implemented at a receiver 102.

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

The orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) transform may be used to transform constellation symbols placed on a delay-Doppler grid to symbols on a time-frequency grid. These time-frequency symbols may then be modulated using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and transmitted over a fading channel of a wireless system.

Wireless systems are often configured to have a base station on the network side and multiple user devices (abbreviated as users) deployed in an area. The transmissions from the user devices to the base station are called uplink transmissions, while transmissions from the base station to the user devices are called downlink transmissions. To accommodate transmissions to and from the user devices, there are two multi-user schemes, which are often used in different communication systems:

Multi-user uplink—where different users are transmitting at the same time (subject to being time division multiplexed), sharing the bandwidth, but experiencing different channels and all the signals are received by a single receiver (e.g., a base station), which decodes all the users.

Multi-user downlink—where a single transmitter sends data to several different users over a shared bandwidth. Each user device receives a signal, which experiences a generally different channel and decodes only the data targeted to itself.

While the various transmission and reception techniques are described in the present document with reference to uplink and downlink transmissions, the techniques are also applicable to other situations when transmissions are made between a transmitting wireless device and multiple wireless devices in both directions. Such examples include, e.g., ad hoc networks that may be established among wireless devices.

When OTFS signal is used, the prevalent OFDM transmission technologies do not address ways that can effectively multiplex the OTFS transmissions. The techniques disclosed in this document can be used for multi-user to share and decode an OTFS signal.

While various embodiments are described with the example of a delay-Doppler domain or a time-frequency domain representation of transmission resources, in general, transmission bandwidth may be represented in multiple dimensions, with each of the multiple dimensions having an orthogonal relationship with other dimensions.

Multiplexing in the Delay-Doppler Domain

One possible way to share an OTFS signal (or OTFS transmission resources) between multiple user devices is to multiplex the user devices in the delay-Doppler domain, meaning, to allocate different portions of the resource grid to different users. This allocation may be arbitrary, but to simplify the receiver, it may be better to multiplex the users along one of the grid dimensions, either along the delay or the Doppler dimension. FIG. 2 shows an example for multiplexing users in the delay-Doppler grid, along the delay dimension.

Multi-User Uplink Transmission Scheme

FIG. 3 shows an example of 3 user devices (user 1, user 2 and user 3) multiplexed in the delay-Doppler grid (along delay). Each user occupies a different portion of the delay-Doppler grid, having the rest of the grid unallocated (zeros). Each user may add specific reference signals to its transmission to enable channel estimation at the receiver. The users are transmitted simultaneously over different channels (H₁, . . . , H₃) and received together at a single receiver. After applying the inverse OTFS transform, the receiver's delay-Doppler grid contains all the received users. As depicted in FIG. 3, the uplink signals from a user device may be transformed using an OTFS transform into an OFDM signal. A waveform generator may assign transmissions resources to the OFDM signal along the time-frequency grid. In addition, the waveform generator may also include reference signals. The resulting signal may be transmitted to the multi-user receiver device. At the receiver device, the received signal may be inverse transformed using an OTFS inverse transform and the resulting signals may be demultiplexed into signals originating from the multiple user devices.

Examples of Multi-User Downlink Transmission Schemes

FIG. 4 shows an example of 3 users sharing a transmission and received by 3 different receivers after experiencing 3 different channels. Each user decodes only its specific data. As depicted, the single transmission device may multiplex signals from multiple user devices, transform them into the OFDM time-frequency grid, optionally add reference signals and transmit to the user devices. At the user devices, each user device may receive the transmission, and extract the data that is intended for transmission to the user device.

Examples of Multi-User Iterative Receiver Embodiments

One possible implementation of a multi-user receiver includes an iterative scheme, where an equalizer gets extrinsic prior information about the users' symbols. The extrinsic information may include information that allows the receiver device to successfully demultiplex a signal that includes transmissions from the multiple transmitting devices. For example, the extrinsic information may include a schedule allocated to the multiple transmitting devices. The equalizer may perform linear Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) filtering for each user device to extract the corresponding estimated symbols on the time-frequency grid. Then, these symbols are transformed to the delay-Doppler grid using an inverse OTFS transform, converted to bit likelihoods and possibly forward error correction (FEC) decoded. From the FEC of each user, the likelihoods of the of coded bits are converted to symbols' prior information and transformed back to the time-frequency grid using an OTFS transform. The equalization of each specific user also may take into account the prior information of all the other users. FIG. 5 shows an example of such a receiver for three uplink users. An equivalent receiver for a downlink user may only include of a single processing chain for that specific target user.

Multiplexing in the Time-Frequency Domain

In general, in various embodiments, other type of multiplexing is also possible, such as multiplexing users in the time-frequency grid (FIG. 6) or combining multiplexing in delay-Doppler and multiplexing in time-frequency (FIG. 7). In particular, as depicted in FIG. 7, in some embodiments, multiplexing may be achieved in two stages. In the first stage, transmissions from multiple user devices in a first group may be multiplexed in the delay dimension and a second group may be separately multiplexed in the delay dimension (or another suitable dimension along a multi-dimensional resource grid). The resulting signal output may then be multiplexed in the frequency domain as the first user group (User group 1) and the second user group (user group 2). In FIG. 7, the user devices 1, 2, and so on in the first user group and the second user groups may represent different user devices. In general, the user groups may have a different number of user devices (N1 and N2, where N1 and N2 are equal to 1 or more).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an example method 800 for performing downlink transmissions from a transmitting device to multiple user devices using transmission resources from a multi-dimensional grid of resources. The method includes logically partitioning (802) the transmission resources into multiple segments, assigning (804), to a given user device of the multiple user devices, transmission resources of one or more of the multiple segments, and performing (806), using at least some of the assigned transmission resources for the given user device, a downlink transmission using an orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) transformation on data or signals to be transmitted to the given user device.

In some embodiments, the logically partitioning the transmission resource includes multiplexing the transmission resources along one dimension of the multi-dimensional grid of resources. In some embodiments, the multi-dimensional grid of resources includes a delay dimension and a Doppler dimension and wherein the multiplexing the transmission resources includes multiplexing the transmission resources along the delay dimension. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the multi-dimensional grid of resources includes a delay dimension and a Doppler dimension and wherein the multiplexing the transmission resources includes multiplexing the transmission resources along the Doppler dimension. In some embodiments, the multi-dimensional grid or resources includes a time dimension and a frequency dimension and wherein the multiplexing the transmission resources includes multiplexing the transmission resources along the frequency dimension. In some embodiments, the multi-dimensional grid or resources includes a time dimension and a frequency dimension and wherein the multiplexing the transmission resources includes multiplexing the transmission resources along the time dimension.

In some embodiments, the downlink transmission includes a reference signal to enable channel estimation by the given user device. For example, the reference signal is based on an identity of the given user device. In some embodiments, the multi-dimensional grid may represent a two-dimensional resource grid such as the time-frequency grid or the delay-Doppler grid of resources. In some embodiments, the partitioning of resources may be non-uniformly spaced in the multi-dimensional grid of resources. For example, some user devices may be allocated more transmission resources than other devices, based on their application layer bandwidth requests.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an example method 900 for performing uplink transmissions from multiple user devices using transmission resources from a multi-dimensional grid of resources to a receiving device. The method 900 includes logically partitioning (902) the transmission resources into multiple segments, assigning (904), to a given user device of the multiple user devices, transmission resources of one or more of the multiple segments, and performing (906), an uplink transmission from the given user device using at least some of the assigned transmission resources for the given user device, wherein the uplink transmission includes data that has undergone an orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) transform.

In some embodiments, the logically partitioning the transmission resource includes multiplexing the transmission resources along one dimension of the multi-dimensional grid of resources. In some embodiments, the multi-dimensional grid or resources includes a delay dimension and a Doppler dimension and wherein the multiplexing the transmission resources includes multiplexing the transmission resources along the delay dimension. In some embodiments, the multi-dimensional grid or resources includes a delay dimension and a Doppler dimension and wherein the multiplexing the transmission resources includes multiplexing the transmission resources along the Doppler dimension. In some embodiments, the two dimensional grid or resources includes a delay dimension and a Doppler dimension and wherein the multiplexing the transmission resources includes multiplexing the transmission resources along the frequency dimension. In some embodiments, the two dimensional grid or resources includes a delay dimension and a Doppler dimension and wherein the multiplexing the transmission resources includes multiplexing the transmission resources along the time dimension.

In some embodiments the uplink transmission includes a reference signal to enable channel estimation by the receiving device. The reference signal may be based on an identity of the receiving signal. For example, the reference signal may be specifically designed to allow the receiving design to perform channel equalization, and other optimization functions.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a wireless transceiver apparatus 500. The apparatus 500 may be used to implement method 200. The apparatus 500 includes a processor 502, a memory 504 that stores processor-executable instructions and data during computations performed by the processor. The apparatus 500 includes reception and/or transmission circuitry 506, e.g., including radio frequency operations for receiving or transmitting signals.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for a method 1100 for performing transmissions between a wireless device to multiple user devices. The method 1100 includes logically grouping (1102) the multiple user devices into a first group of user devices and a second group of user devices, allocating (1104) a first group of transmission resources to the first group of user devices and a second group of transmission resources to the second group of user devices by multiplexing along a first dimension of a first multi-dimensional representation of transmission resources, allocating (1106), from the first group of transmission resources, transmissions resources to user devices in the first group by multiplexing along a second dimension in a second multi-dimensional representation of the transmission resources, and performing (1108) a transmission between the wireless device and at least one user device using corresponding allocated transmission resources.

In some embodiments, the first multi-dimensional representation comprises a time-frequency representation and the second multi-dimensional representation comprises a delay-Doppler representation. In various embodiments, the first dimension may be frequency or time dimension and the second dimension may be delay or Doppler dimension. In some embodiments, the user groups may include one device, or more than one devices.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a method 1200 for receiving an orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) signal comprising a multiplex of transmissions from multiple transmitting devices. The method 1200 includes performing (1202) joint equalization on the multiplex to generate jointly equalized symbols, extracting (1204), from the jointly equalized symbols, symbols corresponding to a given transmitting device based on extrinsic information about transmission resource location of the symbols, demapping (1206) the extracted symbols and performing forward error correction to generate output bits, and generating (1208) a feedback signal based on the output bits for improving the joint equalization in a next iteration.

In some embodiments, the operation of the generating the feedback signal includes performing symbol mapping followed by OTFS transforming results of the symbol mapping to generate the feedback signal. In some embodiments, the operation of generating the output bits for the user device includes performing inverse OTFS modulation.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart representation of a method 1300 for receiving an orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) signal comprising a multiplex of transmissions for multiple receiving devices. The method 1300 includes performing (1302) joint equalization on the multiplex to generate jointly equalized symbols, extracting (1304), from the jointly equalized symbols, symbols corresponding to one or more receiving devices, and demapping the extracted symbols and performing forward error correction to generate output bits, and generating (1306) a feedback signal based on the output bits for improving the joint equalization in a next iteration.

In some embodiments, the generating the feedback signal includes performing symbol mapping followed by OTFS transforming results of the symbol mapping to generate the feedback signal. In some embodiments, the operation of generating the output bits for the receiving device includes performing inverse OTFS modulation.

It will be appreciated that the disclosed techniques can be used to improve reception performance of wireless apparatus and/or reduce complexity of implementation.

The disclosed and other embodiments, modules and the functional operations described in this document can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer software, firmware, or hardware, including the structures disclosed in this document and their structural equivalents, or in combinations of one or more of them. The disclosed and other embodiments can be implemented as one or more computer program products, i.e., one or more modules of computer program instructions encoded on a computer readable medium for execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus. The computer readable medium can be a machine-readable storage device, a machine-readable storage substrate, a memory device, a composition of matter effecting a machine-readable propagated signal, or a combination of one or more them. The term “data processing apparatus” encompasses all apparatus, devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example a programmable processor, a computer, or multiple processors or computers. The apparatus can include, in addition to hardware, code that creates an execution environment for the computer program in question, e.g., code that constitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a database management system, an operating system, or a combination of one or more of them. A propagated signal is an artificially generated signal, e.g., a machine-generated electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signal, that is generated to encode information for transmission to suitable receiver apparatus.

A computer program (also known as a program, software, software application, script, or code) can be written in any form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as a standalone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program does not necessarily correspond to a file in a file system. A program can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup language document), in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store one or more modules, sub programs, or portions of code). A computer program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers that are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network.

The processes and logic flows described in this document can be performed by one or more programmable processors executing one or more computer programs to perform functions by operating on input data and generating output. The processes and logic flows can also be performed by, and apparatus can also be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit).

Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read only memory or a random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer are a processor for performing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., magnetic, magneto optical disks, or optical disks. However, a computer need not have such devices. Computer readable media suitable for storing computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, media and memory devices, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto optical disks; and CD ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.

While this patent document contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of an invention that is claimed or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in this document in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or a variation of a sub-combination. Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results.

Only a few examples and implementations are disclosed. Variations, modifications, and enhancements to the described examples and implementations and other implementations can be made based on what is disclosed.

Claims

1. A wireless communication method for performing transmissions between a wireless device to multiple user devices, comprising: logically grouping the multiple user devices into a first group of user devices and a second group of user devices;allocating a first group of transmission resources to the first group of user devices and a second group of transmission resources to the second group of user devices by multiplexing along a first dimension of a first multi-dimensional representation of transmission resources;allocating, from the first group of transmission resources, transmissions resources to user devices in the first group by multiplexing along a second dimension in a second multi-dimensional representation of the transmission resources; andperforming a transmission between the wireless device and at least one user device using corresponding allocated transmission resources.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first multi-dimensional representation comprises a time-frequency representation and the second multi-dimensional representation comprises a delay-Doppler representation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first dimension of the first multi-dimensional representation comprises a frequency dimension.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first dimension of the first multi-dimensional representation comprises a time dimension.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the second dimension of the second multi-dimensional representation comprises a delay dimension.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the second dimension of the second multi-dimensional representation comprises a Doppler dimension.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the transmission is performed from the wireless device to the at least one user device.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the transmission is performed from the at least one user device to the wireless device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first group of receiving devices includes one or more receiving devices and the second group of receiving devices includes one or more receiving devices.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmissions include a reference signal that enables channel estimation by a given receiving device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference signal is based on an identity of the given transmitting device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the logical partitioning of the transmission resources is non-uniformly spaced in the multi-dimensional grid of resources.

13. A wireless device comprising a processor configured to implement a method for wireless communication, comprising: logically grouping multiple user devices into a first group of user devices and a second group of user devices;allocating a first group of transmission resources to the first group of user devices and a second group of transmission resources to the second group of user devices by multiplexing along a first dimension of a first multi-dimensional representation of transmission resources;allocating, from the first group of transmission resources, transmissions resources to user devices in the first group by multiplexing along a second dimension in a second multi-dimensional representation of the transmission resources; andperforming a transmission between the wireless device and at least one user device using corresponding allocated transmission resources.

14. The wireless device of claim 13, wherein the logical partitioning of the transmission resources is non-uniformly spaced in the multi-dimensional grid of resources.

15. The wireless device of claim 13, wherein the first multi-dimensional representation comprises a time-frequency representation and the second multi-dimensional representation comprises a delay-Doppler representation.

16. The wireless device of claim 15, wherein the first dimension of the first multi-dimensional representation comprises a frequency dimension or a time dimension and the second dimension of the second multi-dimensional representation comprises a delay dimension or a Doppler dimension.

17. The wireless device of claim 13, wherein the first group of receiving devices includes one or more receiving devices and the second group of receiving devices includes one or more receiving devices.

18. The wireless device of claim 13, wherein the transmission includes a reference signal that enables channel estimation by a given receiving device.

19. The wireless device of claim 18, wherein the reference signal is based on an identity of the given receiving device.