The present invention relates to the technical field of mobile communication and more particularly relates to user apparatuses, base station apparatuses and methods for use in mobile communication systems.
In this technical field, some research and development on next-generation communication systems have been intensively accelerated. In currently anticipated communication systems, a single-carrier scheme may be promising for use in uplinks from the viewpoint of wider coverage while avoiding increase in PAPR (peak-to-Average Power Ratio). Also in these communication systems, both uplink and downlink radio resources may be assigned in channels shared between multiple users depending on respective communication conditions of the users. Operations for determining such assignment may be referred to as scheduling. For appropriate scheduling in uplinks, each user apparatus transmits a pilot channel to a base station, and the base station evaluates channel condition of the uplinks based on reception quality. Also for scheduling in downlinks, the base station transmits a pilot channel to the user apparatus, and the user apparatus informs the base station of information (CQI: Channel Quality Indicator) indicative of channel conditions based on reception quality of the pilot channel. The base station evaluates the channel conditions of the downlinks based on the CQIs reported from the user apparatuses and accordingly schedules the downlinks.
Uplink control channels may include two types of control information, control information (requisite control information or first control information) that must be transmitted concomitantly to uplink data channels, and control information (second control information) that may be transmitted independent of the presence of the uplink data channels. The first control information may include information necessary to demodulate the data channels such as data channel modulation schemes and channel coding rates. The second control information may include downlink channel CQI information, downlink data channel acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK), resource assignment requests and/or others. Accordingly, the user apparatus may transmit only the first control information, only the second control information or both the first and second control information in the uplink control channels.
In the case where a resource block (radio resource) is assigned for transmission of the uplink data channel, the first control information (and the second control information as needed) may be transmitted in that resource block. On the other hand, if no uplink data channel is transmitted, it is assumed that the second control information is transmitted in a dedicated resource (dedicated band). Some examples of such band utilization are outlined below.
In
One object of the present invention is to obtain a larger number of orthogonal code sequences and reduce variations of transmission bands in multiplexing of uplink control channels from multiple user apparatuses in the case where the uplink control channels including at least one of acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK) for downlink data channels and information (CQI) indicative of downlink channel conditions are transmitted from the user apparatuses in accordance with the single-carrier scheme.
The present invention is applied to a user apparatus for transmitting at least an uplink control channel to a base station apparatus in accordance with a single-carrier scheme. The user apparatus includes an acknowledgement information generation unit configured to generate acknowledgement information indicative of a positive response or a negative response to a downlink data channel, a channel condition generation unit configured to generate channel condition information indicative of a downlink channel condition, a control channel generation unit configured to generate an uplink control channel including at least one of the acknowledgement information and the channel condition information, and a transmission unit configured to transmit the uplink control channel in a predefined dedicated band if no resource is assigned to transmit an uplink data channel. The uplink control channel includes one or more unit blocks including a sequence resulting from multiplication of a uniform factor with all chips of an orthogonal code sequence for the user apparatus.
According to the embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to obtain a larger number of orthogonal code sequences and reduce variations of transmission bands in multiplexing of uplink control channels from multiple user apparatuses in the case where the uplink control channels including at least one of acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK) for downlink data channels and information (CQI) indicative of downlink channel condition are transmitted from the user apparatuses in accordance with the single-carrier scheme.
According to one aspect of the present invention, an uplink control channel including at least one of acknowledgement information and channel condition information is transmitted in a predefined dedicated band if no resource is assigned to transmit an uplink data channel. The uplink control channel includes several unit block sequences (long blocks) resulting from multiplication of the same factor with all chips of an orthogonal code sequence (typically, a CAZAC code sequence) for a user apparatus. Thus, if the base station apparatus processes uplink control channels supplied from multiple user apparatuses on a per unit block sequence, the base station apparatus can separate the user apparatuses appropriately without orthogonality among the user apparatuses. Since the acknowledgement information or the channel condition information may have a relatively small amount of information, they can be fully represented in one or more factors multiplied with a CAZAC code.
According to one aspect of the present invention, an uplink control channel being not concomitant to an uplink data channel may include a CAZAC code sequence resulting from a number of iterations corresponding to the number of long blocks as well as some multiplier factors and a pilot channel generated from the CAZAC code sequence. Thus, as long as the base station apparatus processes the uplink control channel on a per long block basis or on a per short block basis, characteristics of the CAZAC code sequence would not be lost. This means that good orthogonality separation characteristics among user apparatuses is not only achieved but also the CAZAC codes for long blocks can be used as reference signals for channel estimation, path search and/or others. Since not only a small number of short blocks including pilot channels but also a large number of long blocks included in uplink control channels are used for the channel estimation and/or others, it is possible to significantly improve the accuracy of the channel estimation and/or the path search.
According to one aspect of the present invention, uplink control channels from a large number of user apparatuses may be multiplexed in accordance with a code division multiplexing (CDM) scheme or a frequency division multiplexing (FDM) scheme with CAZAC codes, but the CDM scheme is provided with higher priority. For this reason, transmission bands of user apparatuses have to be modified as little as possible. Under the FDM scheme in this case, a band may have to be divided less narrowly than 1/(user multiplexing order). As a result, a larger number of code sequences for differentiating user apparatuses can be obtained while maintaining relatively wider transmission bands for uplink control channels. A smaller number of band types have to be provided in the FDM scheme, resulting in prevention of frequent modifications of the transmission bands. Another reason of preventing frequent modifications of the transmission bandwidth is that even if the transmission bandwidths of uplink control channels are frequently modified, it would be hard to significantly improve signal quality due to relatively smaller sizes of the acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK) and the channel condition information (CQI). Rather, it would be better to reduce overhead through infrequent modifications of the transmission bandwidths and focus on transmission power control for the signal quality.
According to one aspect of the present invention, an orthogonal code sequence may be represented in a set of factors (block spreading codes) multiplied with multiple unit blocks having the same contents. The unit block may include a sequence resulting from multiplication of the same factor (a factor provided separately from the block spreading codes) with all chips of the orthogonal code sequence. The use of block spreading codes can further increase possible code multiplexing orders. Thereby, the effect of preventing frequent modifications of the transmission bands due to increase or decrease in user multiplexing orders can be further enhanced.
The CQI estimation unit 302 measures and supplies a measure indicative of downlink channel condition, that is, a channel quality indicator (CQI). The CQI may be derived, for example, by measuring reception quality (which may be represented as SIR, SINR or others) of a pilot channel transmitted from a base station and converting the measured reception quality into a numerical value. For example, the measured reception quality (SIR) may be converted into a numerical value indicating which one in 32 levels the reception quality is classified into and may be accordingly derived as a CQI represented in form of 5 bits.
The ACK/NACK determination unit 304 determines whether each packet in a received downlink data channel includes an error and supplies the determination result as acknowledgment information. The acknowledge information may be represented as either acknowledgement (ACK) indicating that the packet has no error or non-acknowledgement (NACK) indicating that the packet has an error. The acknowledgement information has only to represent the presence of an error in the received packet. Accordingly, the acknowledgement information can be represented in one bit but may be represented in more than one bit.
The block-wise modulation pattern generation unit 306 generates block-wise modulation patterns from the CQI and the acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK). A predefined number of blocks are included in a subframe, and in turn several subframes may constitute a transmission time interval (TTI) serving as a resource assignment unit.
The block-wise modulation pattern generation unit 306 in
In the case where a base station has misidentified ACK as NACK, an unnecessary packet may be potentially retransmitted to the user apparatus. On the other hand, in the case where the base station has misidentified NACK as ACK, the user apparatus potentially cannot receive a packet necessary for packet combination, which may lead to packet loss and/or degrade quality significantly through the improper packet combination of new packets. Therefore, ACK/NACK patterns as represented in one or more factors are preferably set to prevent more significant misidentification of NACK as ACK.
In the illustrated (B), only the CQI is transmitted. In the illustration, the CQI is represented in five bits, and it is assumed that the individual bits are represented as CQI1, CQI2, CQI3, CQI4 and CQI5 in descending order from the upper bit. One long block is associated with any bit of the five bits. In other words, a factor for each of the twelve blocks may be any of the CQI1 through CQI5. In the illustration, one TTI is designed to transmit upper bits more times than or equal to lower bits. The most significant bit CQI1 is assigned to four blocks, CQI2 is assigned to three blocks, CQI3 is assigned to two blocks, CQI4 is also assigned to two blocks, and the lowest significant bit CQI5 is assigned to one block. In this manner, even if some errors occur, the CQI values can be prevented from varying drastically.
In the illustrated (C), the acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK) and the CQI are transmitted in the same TTI from the same user. In the illustration, three blocks are associated with the acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK), and the remaining nine blocks are associated with the CQI. Even in the case where the same user transmits the acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK) and the CQI, if several TTIs are available, the schemes (A) and (B) may be used. Also, when the channel condition becomes worse, for example, when a user moves from the cell center to the cell edge, the user may stop reporting the CQI and supply only feedback of ACK/NACK. Information items to be transmitted in uplink control channels may be modified as needed, for example, through signaling from an upper layer.
In this manner, the block-wise modulation pattern generation unit 306 in
The block-wise modulation unit 30B in
The discrete Fourier transform (DFT) unit 310 performs discrete Fourier transform to convert time-series information into frequency domain information.
The subcarrier mapping unit 312 performs mapping in the frequency domains. In particular, if a frequency division multiplexing (FDM) scheme is used to multiplex multiple user apparatuses, the subcarrier mapping unit 312 maps signals to a band assigned in the frequency setting unit 336. The FDM scheme includes two types of FDM schemes, that is, a localized FDM scheme and a distributed FDM scheme. In the localized FDM scheme, successive bands on the frequency axis are assigned to an individual user. In the distributed FDM scheme, downlink signals are generated to have multiple discontinuous frequency components distributed across a wide band (a dedicated band FRB2 to uplink control channels).
The inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) unit 314 performs inverse Fourier transform to inversely convert frequency domain signals into time domain signals.
The cyclic prefix (CP) application unit 316 applies a cyclic prefix (CP) to information to be transmitted. The cyclic prefix (CP) serves as a guard interval to absorb multipath propagation delay and some differences of reception timings between several users at a base station.
The multiplexing unit 318 multiplexes the information into a pilot channel to generate transmission symbols. The pilot channel is transmitted in short blocks (SB1, SB2) illustrated as the frame configuration in
The RF transmission circuit 320 performs digital-analog conversion, frequency conversion, band limiting and/or others to transmit the transmission symbols in a radio frequency.
The power amplifier 322 adjusts transmission power.
The duplexer 324 splits into transmission signals and reception signals for simultaneous communication.
The code information identification unit 330 identifies code information including a CAZAC code sequence (sequence number) for use in the user apparatus, a cyclic shift amount of the CAZAC code sequence and transmission band related information. The code information may be derived from broadcast information supplied via broadcast channels or transmitted from a base station separately. Such separate transmission may be performed through signaling from an upper layer such as a L3 control channel. As described in the second embodiment below, the code information identification unit 330 determines which orthogonal code sequence is represented by a set of factors (block spreading code) multiplied with multiple blocks.
The CAZAC code generation unit 332 generates a CAZAC code sequence in accordance with a sequence number specified in the code information.
The cyclic shift unit 334 derives other codes by rearranging the CAZAC code sequence in a cyclic manner in accordance with the cyclic shift amount specified in the code information.
CAZAC codes are overviewed below.
As illustrated in
In this embodiment, each user apparatus uses a CAZAC code selected among a set of CAZAC codes having the above-mentioned characteristic, that is, a set of code sequences derived by cyclically shifting a certain CAZAC code. In this embodiment, L/LΔ codes obtained by cyclically shifting a basic CAZAC code in a set of mutually orthogonal codes by Δ (Δ=n×LΔ and n=0, 1, . . . , (L−1)/LΔ) are actually used as a pilot channel of a mobile station. The value of LΔ is determined based on the amount of multipath propagation delay. In this manner, uplink control channels transmitted from individual user apparatuses can properly maintain mutual orthogonality relationship even under multipath propagation environments. The CAZAC codes are described in detail in D. C. Chu, “Polyphase codes with good periodic correlation properties”, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. IT-18, pp. 531-532, July 1972; 3GPP, R1-050822, and Texas Instruments, “On allocation of uplink sub-channels in EUTRA SC-FDMA”, for example.
The frequency setting unit 336 in
The pilot signal generation unit 338 supplies a pilot channel to be included in an uplink control channel. As mentioned above, the pilot channel is transmitted in short blocks (SB1, SB2) illustrated in the frame configuration in
The duplexer 702 splits into transmission signals and reception signals for simultaneous communication.
The RF reception circuit 704 performs digital-analog conversion, frequency conversion, band limiting and/or others for processing reception symbols in a baseband.
The reception timing estimation unit 706 identifies a reception timing based on a synchronization channel or a pilot channel in a reception signal.
The fast Fourier transform (FFT) unit 708 performs Fourier transform and converts time-series information into frequency domain information.
The channel estimation unit 710 estimates uplink channel condition based on reception condition of an uplink pilot channel and supplies information for channel compensation.
The subcarrier demapping unit 712 performs demapping in frequency domains. This operation is performed corresponding to mapping in the frequency domains performed by individual user apparatuses.
The frequency domain equalization unit 714 performs equalization on reception signals based on channel estimation values.
The inverse discrete Fourier transform (TAFT) unit 716 performs inverse Fourier transform for conversion of the frequency domain signals into time domain signals.
The demodulation unit 71B demodulates reception signals. In this embodiment, uplink control channels are demodulated, and the CQI for downlink channels and/or acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK) to downlink data channels are supplied.
The retransmission control unit 720 provides a new packet or a retransmission packet corresponding to the acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK).
The scheduler 722 determines assignment of downlink resources based on the CQI for downlinks and/or other criteria. Also, the scheduler 722 determines assignment of uplink resources based on reception results of pilot channels transmitted from user apparatuses and/or other criteria. The determined assignment is supplied as scheduling information. The scheduling information specifies a frequency, a duration, a transmission format (data modulation scheme, channel coding rate and/or others) for signal transmission.
Based on the assignment determined by the scheduler 722, the code information setting unit 724 specifies code information including a sequence number indicative of an uplink CAZAC code for use in a user apparatus, a cyclic shift amount, an available frequency band and/or others. The code information may be commonly transmitted to the user apparatuses via broadcast channels or indicated individually to the user apparatuses. In the former case, it is required that each user apparatus can uniquely derive the code information for the user apparatus itself from the broadcast information.
At step B1, the base station apparatus performs downlink scheduling to transmit a downlink control channel (L1/L2 control channel), a downlink data channel and a pilot channel to a user apparatus.
At step M1, the user apparatus identifies information (code information for that user apparatus) on codes for use in an uplink control channel based on information in the downlink control channel.
At step S1, a user apparatus checks an assignment number P (=1, 2, . . . , 12) for the user apparatus itself as specified in a downlink L1/L2 control channel.
At step S2, the user apparatus determines whether the assignment number P is greater than 3. If the determination is NO (P=1, 2, 3), the user apparatus determines that the sequence number C#1, the cyclic shift amount (P−1)×LΔ and the band Bw1 are assigned. On the other hand, if the assignment number is greater than 3, the process control proceeds to step S3.
At step S3, the user apparatus determines whether the assignment number P is greater than 6. If the determination is NO (P=4, 5, 6), the user apparatus determines that the sequence number C#1, the cyclic shift amount (P−4)×LΔ and the band Bw2 are assigned. On the other hand, if the assignment number is greater than 6, the process control proceeds to step S4.
At step S4, the user apparatus determines whether the assignment number P is greater than 9. If the determination is NO (P=7, 8, 9), the user apparatus determines that the sequence number C#2, the cyclic shift amount (P−7)×LΔ and the band Bw1 are assigned. On the other hand, if the assignment number is greater than 9 (P=10, 11, 12), the user apparatus determines that the sequence number C#2, the cyclic shift amount (P−10)×LΔ and the band Bw2 are assigned.
In the embodiment illustrated in conjunction with
In this manner, code information for each user apparatus can be identified from the broadcast information and the assignment information P. The identified code information is transmitted to the CAZAC code generation unit 332, the cyclic shift unit 334, the frequency setting unit 336 and the pilot signal generation unit 338 in
At step M2 in
At step M3, the user apparatus measures reception quality of a downlink pilot channel and derives the CQI through conversion the measured reception quality into a numerical value within a certain range. For example, if the reception quality is represented in 32 levels, the CQI represented in 5 bits can be derived through conversion of the current reception quality such as SIR into a numerical value indicating which level the reception quality belongs to.
Steps M2 and M3 are not necessarily performed in that order. The determination of the acknowledgement information and the measurement of the CQI may be performed at any suitable time points.
At step M4, an uplink control channel is generated to indicate one or both of the acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK) and the CQI to the base station. As mentioned above, the block-wise modulation pattern generation unit in
The uplink control channel generated as mentioned above is transmitted from the user apparatus to the base station in a dedicated band.
At step B2, the base station apparatus receives and demodulates the uplink control channels from multiple user apparatuses. Although the user apparatuses transmit the similar uplink control channels, the user apparatuses may use CAZAC code sequences of different cyclic shift amounts, different bands or different CAZAC code sequences. As mentioned above, only one factor is totally multiplied with the CAZAC code sequence for different long blocks, and thus the base station apparatus can add the uplink control channels received from the user apparatuses in the same phase. As a result, the orthogonality between CAZAC codes with different cyclic shift amounts of the same sequence can be maintained, and thus the base station apparatus can orthogonally separate individual signals from the user apparatuses. Even if non-orthogonal CAZAC codes are used, the user apparatuses can be differentiated at an interference level lower than random sequences. In addition, the base station apparatus can determine contents of the acknowledgement information and/or the CQI by determining the first through twelfth factors used in the uplink control channels for the respective user apparatuses.
At step B3, the base station apparatus performs retransmission control, resource assignment and/or other operations based on the acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK) and/or the CQI transmitted from the user apparatus in the uplink control channel.
Since the block spreading codes (1, 1) and (1, −1) can be used to differentiate the first and second user apparatuses UE1 and UE2, the same shift amount for the CAZAC codes may be used for the first and second user apparatuses. In other words, it is unnecessary to use different cyclic shift amounts A. For convenience, factors multiplied with long blocks have been described, but some factors may be multiplied with short blocks (SBs).
In
In
In this case, any appropriate orthogonal codes may be used. As illustrated, components of the orthogonal code may be “+1” and “−1” or may be represented as a phase factor such as (1, 1, 1), (1, exp(j2π/3), exp (j4π/3)), and (1, exp (j4π/3), exp (j2π/3)).
According to this embodiment, a larger number of orthogonal multiplexing orders can be achieved than those of the first embodiment by using not only cyclic shift amounts of CAZAC codes but also block spreading codes. In the case where the CDM and FDM schemes are used together, the CDM scheme increases the number of available multiplexing orders, which may further reduce bandwidth modifications caused by application of the FDM scheme. Thus, it is possible to make reporting of the bandwidth modifications less frequent and reduce involved consumption of radio resources.
The transmission data sequence generation unit 338 generates a data sequence indicative of the acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK) or the CQI.
The block-wise modulation unit 308 associates a transmission data sequence supplied from the transmission data sequence generation unit 340 with one long block and multiplies each long block with an orthogonal code sequence. Then, the block-wise modulation unit 308 multiplies each of the long blocks multiplied with the orthogonal code sequence with a set of a predefined number of factors (block spreading codes) provided by a block spread unit 335 as described below.
The block spread unit 335 provides the set of factors (block spreading codes) and multiplies each of the factors with each long block (LB). The block spreading codes are orthogonal code sequences, and information supplied from the code information identification unit 330 specifies which orthogonal code sequence is used.
Several bits to several tens of bits of data sequence indicative of the acknowledgement information (ACK/NACK) or the CQI, for example, “a1, a2, . . . , aN” (N is a positive integer), are generated. Also, an orthogonal sequence “C1, C2, C3, C4, . . . am” (M is a positive integer) is provided. For example, if the spreading rate is equal to M, “C1, C2, C3, . . . , CM” is provided. An exemplary case of the spreading rate of four is described below, the present embodiment can be similarly applied to other cases of the spreading rate other than four.
An orthogonal sequence is multiplied with a data sequence. In other words, multiplications “a1×C1”, “a1×C2”, “a1×C3”, “a1×C4”, “a2×C1”, . . . , “a4×C4” are carried out. Then, reordering is carried out for each multiplied orthogonal sequence.
As a result, a number of blocks corresponding to the spreading rate (spreading code sequence) are generated where the orthogonal sequence is multiplied with the data sequence. These blocks are mapped to long blocks and then are multiplied with the block spreading code.
In the user apparatuses according to the first and second embodiments, only one bit of information can be transmitted in each long block. In this embodiment, however, several bits of information, for example, N bits of information, can be transmitted.
For example, in the case where the spreading rate is equal to four and transmission information has four bits, four bits can be transmitted in four long blocks, which may be substantially the same as transmission of one bit of information in one long block. However, in the case where the spreading rate is equal to four and transmission information has 12 bits, 12 bits can be transmitted in four long blocks, which means that three bits of information can be substantially transmitted in one long block.
Also in this embodiment, the block spreading code can be used to differentiate user apparatuses. For example, if the orthogonal spreading code length is equal to four, four factors are multiplied with each four long blocks. For example, if four user apparatuses are code-multiplexed, four orthogonal codes (+1, +1, +1, +1), (+1, −1, +1, −1), (+1, +1, −1, −1) and (+1, −1, −1, +1) are used. The code length is not limited to four, and orthogonal codes of any other appropriate lengths may be used. The code length may be determined in the base station apparatus depending on the number of user apparatuses, bands and/or others, for example.
Note that any appropriate orthogonal codes may be used. As illustrated, code components may be “+1” and “−1” or may be represented as a phase factor such as (1, 1, 1), (1, exp (j2π/3), exp (j4π/3)), and (1, exp (j4π/3), exp (j2π/3)).
According to this embodiment, the block spreading codes are used for orthogonal CDM transmission, and thus a larger number of bits can be transmitted than the first and second embodiments using cyclic shift amounts for CAZAC sequences.
Also, user apparatuses can be differentiated through orthogonal codes (block spreading codes) multiplied among long blocks.
Also, orthogonal CDM is enabled through block spreading for other sequences where the block spreading is applied, for example, other sequences generated through cyclic shift of CAZAC sequences as mentioned in conjunction with the second embodiment.
For convenience, the present invention has been described with reference to the distinct embodiments, but separation of the embodiments is not essential to the present invention and two or more of the embodiments may be used together as needed. Some specific numerals have been used to facilitate understanding of the present invention, but unless otherwise noted, these numerals are simply illustrative and any other appropriate values may be used.
The present invention has been described with reference to the specific embodiments of the present invention, but the embodiments are simply illustrative and variations, modifications, alterations and substitutions could be contrived by those skilled in the art. For convenience of explanation, apparatuses according to the embodiments of the present invention have been described with reference to functional block diagrams, but these apparatuses may be implemented in hardware, software or combinations thereof. The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and variations, modifications, alterations and substitutions can be made by those skilled in the art without deviating from the spirit of the present invention.
This international patent application is based on Japanese Priority Applications No. 2006-272352 filed on Oct. 3, 2006, No. 2006-298313 filed on Nov. 1, 2006 and No. 2007-001855 filed on Jan. 9, 2007, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2006-272352 | Oct 2006 | JP | national |
2006-298313 | Nov 2006 | JP | national |
2007-001855 | Jan 2007 | JP | national |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12443941 | Jun 2009 | US |
Child | 14015712 | US |