Systems and methods for downlink scheduling that mitigate PDCCH congestion

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10368343-B2
Application number	US-201514722386-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 27, 2015
Priority date	May 27, 2015
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for improving Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) allocation for improved downlink scheduling. In some embodiments, a method of operation of a network node in a cellular communications network comprises transmitting a downlink assignment to a wireless device, the downlink assignment comprising an indication of whether the downlink assignment applies to a single Transmit Time Interval (TTI) or multiple consecutive TTIs, and transmitting a downlink data transmission to the wireless device during a single TTI or multiple downlink data transmissions to the wireless device during multiple consecutive TTIs according to the downlink assignment. In this manner, the network node does not need to transmit, and the wireless device does not need to receive/decode, a separate downlink assignment in each TTI. This may be beneficial to, e.g., mitigate PDCCH congestion.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operation of a network node in a cellular communications network, comprising:
transmitting a downlink assignment to a wireless device, the downlink assignment comprising an indication of whether the downlink assignment applies to a single transmit time interval or multiple consecutive transmit time intervals;
transmitting a downlink data transmission to the wireless device during a single transmit time interval or multiple downlink data transmissions to the wireless device during multiple consecutive transmit time intervals according to the downlink assignment where the multiple downlink data transmissions comprise at least two different data values;
determining whether the wireless device supports multiple transmit time interval downlink assignment;
determining whether a service type of a service associated with the downlink transmission to the wireless device is a guaranteed bit rate service type; and
upon determining that the wireless device supports multiple transmit time interval downlink assignment and determining that the service type of the service associated with the downlink transmission to the wireless device is a guaranteed bit rate service type:
determining a number of consecutive transmit time intervals to be scheduled for downlink data transmission to the wireless device, the determined number of consecutive transmit time intervals being greater than or equal to 1; and
scheduling the multiple downlink data transmissions to the wireless device during the determined number of consecutive transmit time intervals.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication in the downlink assignment indicates that the downlink assignment applies to multiple consecutive transmit time intervals, and transmitting comprises transmitting multiple downlink data transmissions to the wireless device during the multiple consecutive transmit time intervals according to the downlink assignment.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the downlink assignment assigns the same physical resources for the multiple downlink data transmissions in the multiple consecutive transmit time intervals.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein:
transmitting the downlink assignment to the wireless device comprises transmitting the downlink assignment to the wireless device during a first transmit time interval of the multiple consecutive transmit time intervals; and
transmitting the multiple downlink data transmissions to the wireless device during the multiple consecutive transmit time intervals comprises:
transmitting a first downlink data transmission to the wireless device during the first transmit time interval according to the downlink assignment transmitted during the first transmit time interval; and
transmitting a second downlink data transmission to the wireless device during a second transmit time interval of the multiple consecutive transmit time intervals according to the downlink assignment transmitted during the first transmit time interval.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the downlink assignment to the wireless device comprises transmitting the downlink assignment to the wireless device via a downlink control information message comprising the indication of whether the downlink assignment applies to a single transmit time interval or multiple consecutive transmit time intervals.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein, if the indication indicates that the downlink assignment applies to multiple consecutive transmit time intervals, the indication is further indicative of the number of consecutive transmit time intervals in the multiple consecutive transmit time intervals.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein, if the indication indicates that the downlink assignment applies to multiple consecutive transmit time intervals, the indication is further indicative of the number of consecutive transmit time intervals in the multiple consecutive transmit time intervals.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the number of consecutive transmit time intervals comprises determining the number of consecutive transmit time intervals to be scheduled for downlink data transmission to the wireless device based on channel quality information reported by the wireless device.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein scheduling the downlink data transmissions to the wireless device for the multiple consecutive transmit time intervals further comprises:
determining whether a multiple transmit time interval assignment procedure is to be performed for the wireless device;
wherein determining the number of consecutive transmit time intervals to be scheduled for downlink data transmission to the wireless device and scheduling the multiple downlink data transmissions to the wireless device during the determined number of consecutive transmit time intervals are performed upon determining that the multiple transmit time interval assignment procedure is to be performed for the wireless device.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined number of consecutive transmit time intervals is greater than or equal to 2.

11. A network node for a cellular communications network, comprising:
at least one radio unit;
one or more processors; and
memory storing instructions executable by the one or more processors whereby the network node is operative to:
transmit, via the at least one radio unit, a downlink assignment to a wireless device, the downlink assignment comprising an indication of whether the downlink assignment applies to a single transmit time interval or multiple consecutive transmit time intervals;
transmit, via the at least one radio unit, a downlink data transmission to the wireless device during a single transmit time interval or multiple downlink data transmissions to the wireless device during multiple consecutive transmit time intervals according to the downlink assignment where the multiple downlink data transmissions comprise at least two different data values;
determine whether the wireless device supports multiple transmit time interval downlink assignment;
determine whether a service type of a service associated with the downlink transmission to the wireless device is a guaranteed bit rate service type; and
upon determining that the wireless device supports multiple transmit time interval downlink assignment and determining that the service type of the service associated with the downlink transmission to the wireless device is a guaranteed bit rate service type:
determine a number of consecutive transmit time intervals to be scheduled for downlink data transmission to the wireless device, the determined number of consecutive transmit time intervals being greater than or equal to 1; and
schedule the multiple downlink data transmissions to the wireless device during the determined number of consecutive transmit time intervals.

12. The network node of claim 11 wherein the indication in the downlink assignment indicates that the downlink assignment applies to multiple consecutive transmit time intervals, and the network node transmits multiple downlink data transmissions to the wireless device during the multiple consecutive transmit time intervals according to the downlink assignment.

13. The network node of claim 12 wherein the downlink assignment assigns the same physical resources for the multiple downlink data transmissions in the multiple consecutive transmit time intervals.

14. The network node of claim 11 wherein the network node is further operative to transmit the downlink assignment to the wireless device via a downlink control information message comprising the indication of whether the downlink assi

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Sarkar Debasish
• Sen Ayan
• Singh Jaspal
• Singh Narendra Kumar

Classifications

• H04W72/542

  using measured or perceived quality · CPC title

• H04W72/23 Primary

  in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal · CPC title

• H04W72/1289

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W72/042 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W72/085

  Electricity · mapped topic