Component carrier (de)activation in communication systems using carrier aggregation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10250372-B2
Application number	US-201615276465-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 26, 2016
Priority date	Feb 12, 2010
Publication date	Apr 2, 2019
Grant date	Apr 2, 2019

Abstract

This invention relates to the proposal of component carrier (de)activation message that is allowing a activation or deactivation of one or more component carriers in the uplink or downlink. Furthermore, the invention relates to the use of the new component carrier (de)activation message in methods for (de)activation of downlink component carrier(s) configured for a mobile terminal, a base station and a mobile terminal. To enable efficient and robust (de)activation of component carriers, the invention proposes to use component carrier-specific or cell-RNTI(s) for the scrambling of the CRC of the component carrier (de)activation message, and to explicitly indicate the intended recipient of the component carrier (de)activation message in a corresponding field in the message. Furthermore, the invention further proposes different designs of the component carrier (de)activation message and further uses thereof, so as to trigger CQI reporting and/or SRS transmission by a mobile terminal.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A communication apparatus comprising:
a receiver which, in operation, receives a MAC control element including bits which indicate an activation/deactivation status of each of at least one secondary component carrier added to a primary component carrier, which is always activated, each of the at least one secondary component carrier corresponding to one of the bits that indicates whether the secondary component carrier should be activated or deactivated, wherein the MAC control element includes trigger bits which indicate activation/deactivation of sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission, and when any one of the bits indicates that its corresponding secondary component carrier should be activated, the SRS transmission on the corresponding secondary component carrier is triggered according to the trigger bits;
control circuitry which, in operation, activates or deactivates each of the at least one secondary component carrier according to the received MAC control element; and
a transmitter which, in operation, starts an SRS transmission on the activated secondary component carrier(s).

2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the bits form a single octet.

3. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the bits include at least one unused bit.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the SRS transmission is periodic.

5. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein when the activated secondary component carrier is deactivated, the transmitter stops the SRS transmission on the deactivated secondary component carrier.

6. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the primary component carrier and each of the at least one secondary component carrier are each a component carrier including a plurality of subcarriers.

7. A communication method comprising:
reception circuitry of a terminal apparatus receiving a MAC control element including bits which indicate an activation/deactivation status of each of at least one secondary component carrier added to a primary component carrier, which is always activated, each of the at least one secondary component carrier corresponding to one of the bits that indicates whether the secondary component carrier should be activated or deactivated, wherein the MAC control element includes trigger bits which indicate activation/deactivation of sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission, and when any one of the bits indicates that its corresponding secondary component carrier should be activated, the SRS transmission on the corresponding secondary component carrier is triggered according to the trigger bits;
processing circuitry of the terminal apparatus activating or deactivating each of the at least one secondary component carrier according to the received MAC control element; and
transmission circuitry of the terminal apparatus starting an SRS transmission on the activated secondary component carrier(s).

8. The communication method according to claim 7 , wherein the bits form a single octet.

9. The communication method according to claim 7 , wherein the bits include at least one unused bit.

10. The communication method according to claim 7 , wherein the SRS transmission is periodic.

11. The communication method according to claim 7 , further comprising:
in response to deactivation of the activated secondary component carrier, stopping the SRS transmission on the deactivated secondary component carrier.

12. The communication method according to claim 7 , wherein the primary component carrier and each of the at least one secondary component carrier are each a component carrier including a plurality of subcarriers.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having contents which configure signal processing circuitry to perform a communication method, the communication method comprising:
receiving a MAC control element including bits which indicate an activation/deactivation status of each of at least one secondary component carrier added to a primary component carrier, which is always activated, each of the at least one secondary component carrier corresponding to one of the bits that indicates whether the secondary component carrier should be activated or deactivated, wherein the MAC control element includes trigger bits which indicate activation/deactivation of sounding reference signal (SRS' transmission, and when any one of the bits indicates that its corresponding secondary component carrier should be activated, the SRS transmission on the corresponding secondary component carrier is triggered according to the trigger bits;
activating or deactivating each of the at least one secondary component carrier according to the received MAC control element; and
starting an SRS transmission on the activated secondary component carrier(s).

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 13 , wherein the bits form a single octet.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 13 , wherein the bits include at least one unused bit.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 13 , wherein the SRS transmission is periodic.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 13 , wherein the communication method further comprises:
in response to deactivation of the activated secondary component carrier, stopping the SRS transmission on the deactivated secondary component carrier.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 13 , wherein the primary component carrier and each of the at least one secondary component carrier are each a component carrier including a plurality of subcarriers.

Assignees

• Sun Patent Trust

Inventors

• Feuersaenger Martin
• Loehr Joachim
• Golitschek Edler Von Elbwart Alexander
• Wengerter Christian

Classifications

• H04L1/0026

  Transmission of channel quality indication · CPC title

• H04L5/0055

  Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK (for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861) · CPC title

• H04L5/0096

  Indication of changes in allocation · CPC title

• H04W8/26

  Network addressing or numbering for mobility support · CPC title

• H04L5/0053

  Allocation of signalling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals · CPC title