Inter-access terminal unblocking and enhanced contention for co-existence on a shared communication medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10299284-B2
Application number	US-201615250765-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2016
Priority date	Aug 31, 2015
Publication date	May 21, 2019
Grant date	May 21, 2019

Abstract

Techniques for managing access to a shared communication medium are disclosed. Scheduling grants may be sent to different access terminals for different sets of resources for uplink transmission on the communication medium. A series of re-contention gaps may be scheduled for access terminal contention within or between the different sets of resources. Uplink and downlink transmission on the communication medium may be silenced during each of the series of re-contention gaps. Moreover, an access terminal may receive a scheduling grant that allocates a set of resources to the access terminal for uplink transmission on a communication medium and contend for access to the communication medium based on the scheduling grant. The access terminal may then selectively transmit uplink traffic over the allocated set of resources based on the contending.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication method, comprising:
sending a first scheduling grant to a first access terminal for a first set of resources for uplink transmission on a communication medium;
sending a second scheduling grant to a second access terminal for a second set of resources for uplink transmission on the communication medium;
scheduling a series of re-contention gaps for access terminal contention within or between the first set of resources and the second set of resources, wherein a corresponding schedule of the re-contention gaps is included in at least one of the first or second scheduling grants, and wherein each of the re-contention gaps is less than a sub-frame; and
silencing uplink and downlink transmission on the communication medium during each of the series of re-contention gaps.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the silencing comprises muting one or more symbol periods of an uplink subframe.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the silencing comprises:
advertising a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) gap during one or more symbol periods of an uplink subframe; and
configuring no access terminals for SRS transmission during the one or more symbol periods.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of resources and the second set of resources are time division multiplexed in respective symbol periods, and wherein the re-contention gaps are scheduled to occur between one or more symbol periods associated with the first set of resources and one or more symbol periods associated with the second set of resources.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of resources and the second set of resources are frequency division multiplexed in one or more common symbol periods, and wherein the re-contention gaps are scheduled to occur within the one or more common symbol periods associated with the first set of resources and the second set of resources.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of resources and the second set of resources are overlapping in time and frequency, the method further comprising prioritizing the first access terminal over the second access terminal with respect to contending for access to the communication medium during at least one of the series of re-contention gaps.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the prioritizing comprises:
sending a first set of one or more contention parameters to the first access terminal; and
sending a second set of one or more contention parameters to the second access terminal, wherein the first set of one or more contention parameters defines a smaller variable space for a randomly selected contention window size than the second set of one or more contention parameters.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the prioritizing comprises:
determining a first randomly selected contention window size for the first access terminal in accordance with a first set of one or more contention parameters;
determining a second randomly selected contention window size for the second access terminal in accordance with a second set of one or more contention parameters, wherein the first set of one or more contention parameters defines a smaller variable space for a randomly selected contention window size than the second set of one or more contention parameters; and
sending the first and second contention window sizes to the first and second access terminals, respectively.

9. A communication apparatus, comprising:
at least one transceiver configured to send a first scheduling grant to a first access terminal for a first set of resources for uplink transmission on a communication medium and to send a second scheduling grant to a second access terminal for a second set of resources for uplink transmission on the communication medium;
at least one processor; and
at least one memory coupled to the at least one processor, the at least one processor and the at least one memory being configured to:
schedule a series of re-contention gaps for access terminal contention within or between the first set of resources and the second set of resources, wherein a corresponding schedule of the re-contention gaps is included in at least one of the first or second scheduling grants, and wherein each of the re-contention gaps is less than a sub-frame, and
silence uplink and downlink transmission on the communication medium during each of the series of re-contention gaps.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the at least one processor and the at least one memory are configured to silence uplink and downlink transmission by muting one or more symbol periods of an uplink subframe.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the at least one processor and the at least one memory are configured to silence uplink and downlink transmission by:
advertising a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) gap during one or more symbol periods of an uplink subframe; and
configuring no access terminals for SRS transmission during the one or more symbol periods.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the first set of resources and the second set of resources are time division multiplexed, and wherein the at least one processor and the at least one memory are configured to schedule the re-contention gaps to occur between the first set of resources and the second set of resources.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the first set of resources and the second set of resources are frequency division multiplexed, and wherein the at least one processor and the at least one memory are configured to schedule the re-contention gaps to occur within the first set of resources and the second set of resources.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the first set of resources and the second set of resources are overlapping in time and frequency, and wherein the at least one processor and the at least one memory are further configured to prioritize the first access terminal over the second access terminal with respect to contending for access to the communication medium during at least one of the series of re-contention gaps.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the at least one processor and the at least one memory are configured to prioritize the first access terminal by:
sending a first set of one or more contention parameters to the first access terminal; and
sending a second set of one or more contention parameters to the second access terminal, wherein the first set of one or more contention parameters defines a smaller variable space for a randomly selected contention window size than the second set of one or more contention parameters.

16. A communication method, comprising:
receiving, at an access terminal from an access point, a first scheduling grant that allocates a set of resources to the access terminal for uplink transmission on a communication medium, wherein the first scheduling grant comprises a plurality of sub-frames reserved for uplink transmission;
scheduling a series of re-contention gaps for access terminal contention within the set of resources, wherein a corresponding schedule of the re-contention gaps is included in the first scheduling grant, and wherein each of the re-contention gaps is less than a sub-frame;
contending, by the access terminal, for access to the communication medium based on the first scheduling grant; and
selectively transmitting, from the access terminal to the access point, uplink traffic over the allocated set of resources based on the contending.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the first scheduling grant allocates upcoming time and frequency resources to the access terminal over a pluralit

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Sadek Ahmed Kamel
• Valliappan Nachiappan
• Kadous Tamer Adel
• Patel Chirag Sureshbhai
• Luo Tao

Classifications

• H04W72/566 Primary

  of the information or information source or recipient · CPC title

• H04W72/0453

  Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA · CPC title

• H04L5/14

  Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex · CPC title

• H04L5/0048 Primary

  Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver (allocation of control signalling H04L5/0053; use of control signalling H04L5/0091) · CPC title

• H04W72/0446

  Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames · CPC title