Systems and methods for enhanced MBMS with MIMO support

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10038484-B2
Application number	US-201514865238-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 25, 2015
Priority date	Feb 27, 2015
Publication date	Jul 31, 2018
Grant date	Jul 31, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods use multiple spatial layers for physical multicast channel transmission. Certain embodiments introduce additional multimedia broadcast multicast service reference signals that support more than one antenna ports for multicast broadcast single frequency network transmissions. To reduce channel estimation complexity due to the multicast broadcast single frequency network reference signal design, resource elements of the multicast broadcast single frequency network reference signals may have a nested structure. To assist modulation and coding scheme selection, a user according to certain embodiments also independently reports block error rate measurements for each spatial layer of the multicast channel.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A user equipment (UE), comprising:
a receiver to receive a physical multicast channel (PMCH) transmission through a plurality of spatial layers, wherein different codewords are mapped to two or more spatial layers of the plurality of spatial layers; and
processing circuitry to:
configure PMCH parameters indicated by a network node;
process the PMCH transmission, for the plurality of spatial layers, using the configured PMCH parameters to obtain multicast channel transport blocks;
report a measured block error rate of the multicast channel transport blocks; and
process a PMCH configuration message comprising separate sets of PMCH parameters for the two or more spatial layers.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to process enhanced multicast broadcast single frequency network (eMBSFN) reference signals supporting at least two antenna ports.

3. The UE of claim 2 , wherein resource elements of the eMBSFN reference signals for the two antenna ports occupy at least a subset of corresponding resource elements for a single antenna port transmission of multicast broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) reference signals.

4. The UE of claim 3 , wherein the single antenna port comprises antenna port 4 of a third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) Node B (eNB).

5. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to determine a total number of the plurality of spatial layers for the PMCH transmission based on a total number of the sets of PMCH parameters included in the PMCH configuration message.

6. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to report independent multicast channel block error rates for the two or more spatial layers.

7. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the network node comprises a multicast coordination entity (MCE) configured to select a transport block size (TBS) and a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) based on the measured block error rate, and wherein the processing circuitry receives a PMCH configuration message indicating the selected TBS and MCS in a radio resource control (RRC) signal received from a base station.

8. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the UE comprises at least one of a speaker, a microphone, a connection port, a keyboard, a touch screen, a battery, a memory port, and one or more antennas.

9. An evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) Node B (eNB), the eNB comprising:
an antenna array including a plurality of transmit antennas;
a transmitter operatively coupled to the antenna array; and
a processor to provide multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication through the transmitter, the processor configured to:
receive, from a multicast coordination entity (MCE), a transport block size (TBS) and a modulation and coding scheme (MCS);
map different codewords to two or more MIMO layers;
include separate sets of the TBS and the MCS for the two or more MIMO layers in a configuration message;
send, to one or more mobile communication devices, the configuration message; and
transmit a physical multicast channel, based on the TBS and the MCS, through at least two antenna ports of the antenna array.

10. The eNB of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to map enhanced multicast broadcast single frequency network (eMBSFN) reference signals between the at least two antenna ports.

11. The eNB of claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to map the eMBSFN reference signals to resource elements for the two antenna ports that occupy at least a subset of corresponding resource elements for a single antenna port transmission of multicast broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) reference signals.

12. The eNB of claim 11 , wherein the single antenna port comprises antenna port 4 .

13. The eNB of claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to receive independent multicast channel block error rate (MCH BLER) reports for the two or more MIMO layers, and to provide the independent MCH BLER reports to the MCE to assist with subsequent selection of the TBS and the MCS.

14. The eNB of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to send the configuration message in a radio resource control (RRC) signal to the one or more communication devices.

15. A user equipment (UE), comprising:
a receiver to receive a physical multicast channel (PMCH) transmission through a plurality of spatial layers, wherein a single codeword is mapped to two or more spatial layers of the plurality of spatial layers; and
processing circuitry to:
configure PMCH parameters indicated by a network node;
process the PMCH transmission, for the plurality of spatial layers, using the configured PMCH parameters to obtain multicast channel transport blocks;
report a measured block error rate of the multicast channel transport blocks; and
process a PMCH configuration message comprising a single set of PMCH parameters for the two or more spatial layers.

16. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to process enhanced multicast broadcast single frequency network (eMBSFN) reference signals supporting at least two antenna ports.

17. The UE of claim 16 , wherein resource elements of the eMBSFN reference signals for the two antenna ports occupy at least a subset of corresponding resource elements for a single antenna port transmission of multicast broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) reference signals.

18. The UE of claim 17 , wherein the single antenna port comprises antenna port 4 of a third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) Node B (eNB).

19. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the PMCH configuration message indicates a total number of the plurality of spatial layers for the PMCH transmission.

20. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to report a single multicast channel block error rate for the two or more spatial layers.

21. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the network node comprises a multicast coordination entity (MCE) configured to select a transport block size (TBS) and a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) based on the measured block error rate, and wherein the processing circuitry receives a PMCH configuration message indicating the selected TBS and MCS in a radio resource control (RRC) signal received from a base station.

22. An evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) Node B (eNB), the eNB comprising:
an antenna array including a plurality of transmit antennas;
a transmitter operatively coupled to the antenna array; and
a processor to provide multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication through the transmitter, the processor configured to:
receive, from a multicast coordination entity (MCE), a transport block size (TBS) and a modulation and coding scheme (MCS);
map single codeword to two or more MIMO layers;
include a single set of the TBS and the MCS for the two or more MIMO layers in a configuration message;
send, to one or more mobile communication devices, the configuration message; and
transmit a physical multicast channel, based on the TBS and the MCS, through at least two antenna ports of the antenna array.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Davydov Alexei
• Sergeyev Vadim
• Morozov Gregory V

Classifications

• H04W72/30

  Resource management for broadcast services · CPC title

• H04B7/022

  Site diversity; Macro-diversity (using two or more spaced independent antennas H04B7/04) · CPC title

• H04W28/22

  Negotiating communication rate · CPC title

• H04L1/0027

  Scheduling of signalling, e.g. occurrence thereof · CPC title

• H04L12/189

  in combination with wireless systems (selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06) · CPC title