Method and network node for allocating resources of an uplink subframe

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10270563-B2
Application number	US-201214412712-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 6, 2012
Priority date	Jul 6, 2012
Publication date	Apr 23, 2019
Grant date	Apr 23, 2019

Abstract

It is presented a method of allocating resources of a first uplink subframe being part of a radio frame, each resource being a combination of a frequency range, and a time slot and a code. The method is performed in a network node and comprises: determining a first set of resources allocated for Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, feedback in the first uplink subframe; determining a second set of resources allocated for HARQ feedback in a second uplink subframe being part of the radio frame; identifying free resources in the first uplink subframe by identifying resources of the second set of resources which have no correspondence in the first set of resources; and allocating when a free resource is found, at least part of the free resources to a use other than HARQ feedback. A corresponding network node is also presented.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of allocating resources of a first uplink subframe being part of a radio frame, each resource being a combination of a frequency range, a time slot and a code, the method being performed in a network node and comprising:
determining a first set of resources allocated for Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback in the first uplink subframe;
determining a second set of resources allocated for HARQ feedback in a second uplink subframe being part of the radio frame;
identifying free resources in the first uplink subframe based upon resource usage of the second set of resources, wherein each free resource is identified by finding a HARQ feedback resource index of the second set of resources that does not form part of the first set of resources allocated for HARQ feedback; and
allocating at least part of the identified free resources to a use other than HARQ feedback, and wherein at least part of the free resources is allocated to a semi-static resource use,
wherein identifying free resources further comprises identifying any free resources in the first uplink subframe due to a variation in bundling factor in different uplink subframes, the bundling factor indicating the number of downlink subframes associated with the HARQ feedback in a single uplink subframe.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the semi-static resource use is a resource use selected from the group consisting of a scheduling request and a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) format 1b with channel selection resource.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the allocating comprises allocating at least part of the free resources to user data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is repeated for other uplink subframes of the radio frame, wherein each such other uplink subframe is considered a first uplink subframe in the method.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the steps of determining a second set of resources and identifying free resources are repeated for a third uplink subframe.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying free resources comprises determining free resources in the first uplink subframe when the first uplink subframe has a bundling factor that is less than a bundling factor of the second uplink subframe.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying free resources comprises identifying free resources in the first uplink subframe due to a gap in usage for HARQ feedback for a plurality of downlink subframes in a single uplink subframe.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein each resource is a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) format 1, format 1a, or format 1b resource, as appropriate.

9. A network node arranged to allocate resources for a first uplink subframe being part of a radio frame, each resource being a combination of a frequency range, a time slot and a code, the network node comprising:
a processor; and
an instruction memory storing instructions that, when executed, cause the network node to:
determine a first set of resources allocated for Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback in the first uplink subframe;
determine a second set of resources allocated for HARQ feedback in a second uplink subframe being part of the radio frame;
identify free resources in the first uplink subframe based upon resource usage of the second set of resources, wherein each free resource is identified by finding a HARQ feedback resource index of the second set of resources that does not form part of the first set of resources allocated for HARQ feedback; and allocate at least part of the identified free resources to a use other than HARQ feedback, and wherein at least part of the free resources is allocated to a semi static resource use,
wherein the instructions to identify free resources, comprise instructions to identify any free resources in the first uplink subframe due to a variation in bundling factor in different uplink subframes, the bundling factor indicating the number of downlink subframes associated with the HARQ feedback in a single uplink subframe.

10. The network node of claim 9 , wherein the semi-static resource use is a resource use selected from the group consisting of a scheduling request, and a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) format 1b with channel selection resource.

11. The network node of claim 9 , wherein the instructions to allocate comprise instructions to allocate at least part of the free resources to user data.

12. The network node of claim 9 , wherein the instructions to identify free resources comprise instructions to determine free resources in the first uplink subframe when the first uplink subframe has a bundling factor that is less than a bundling factor of the second uplink subframe.

13. The network node of claim 9 , wherein the instructions to identify free resources comprise instructions to identify free resources in the first uplink subframe due to a gap in usage for HARQ feedback for a plurality of downlink subframes in a single uplink subframe.

14. A method of allocating resources of a first uplink subframe being part of a radio frame, each resource being a combination of a frequency range, a time slot and a code, the method being performed in a network node and comprising:
determining a first set of resources allocated for Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback in the first uplink subframe;
determining a second set of resources allocated for HARQ feedback in a second uplink subframe being part of the radio frame, wherein the second uplink subframe does not overlap in time with the first uplink subframe;
identifying free resources in the first uplink subframe by identifying resources of the second set of resources that have no correspondence in the first set of resources; and
allocating at least part of the identified free resources to a use other than HARQ feedback,
wherein identifying free resources further comprises identifying any free resources in the first uplink subframe due to a variation in bundling factor in different uplink subframes, the bundling factor indicating the number of downlink subframes associated with the HARQ feedback in a single uplink subframe.

Assignees

• Johansson Anders
• Lightstone Leo
• Schmidt Alfred
• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Johansson Anders
• Lightstone Leo
• Schmidt Alfred

Classifications

• H04L5/0007

  the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A) or DMT · CPC title

• H04L1/1854

  Scheduling and prioritising arrangements · CPC title

• H04W72/21 Primary

  in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network · CPC title

• H04L1/1861 Primary

  Physical mapping arrangements (for ACK signaling see also H04L5/0053) · CPC title

• H04L5/0055

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