Apparatus, method and computer program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11711167-B2
Application number	US-201817285976-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 1, 2018
Priority date	Nov 1, 2018
Publication date	Jul 25, 2023
Grant date	Jul 25, 2023

Abstract

There is provided an apparatus, said apparatus including circuitry configured for causing a plurality of data packets to be transmitted, in at least a first mode, determining at least one of the plurality of data packets based on at least one criterion based on at least one transmission parameter of at least one part of one of the plurality of data packets and causing a duplicate of the at least one determined data packet to be transmitted.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one non-transitory memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
cause a plurality of data packets to be transmitted;
determine, with a user equipment, at least one criterion in connection with at least one transmission parameter of at least one part of one of the plurality of data packets;
wherein the apparatus comprises the user equipment;
determine at least one of the plurality of data packets based on the at least one criterion in connection with the at least one transmission parameter of the at least one part of one of the plurality of data packets;
determine whether the at least one criterion is met;
cause a duplicate of the at least one determined data packet to be transmitted, when the at least one criterion determined with the user equipment is met; and
buffer the duplicate with a duplication control entity above a radio link control sublayer of a duplicate protocol stack of the user equipment, the duplication control entity configured to determine whether to cause the duplicate of the at least one determined data packet to be transmitted;
wherein the plurality of data packets is transmitted with an original protocol stack of the user equipment.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of data packets comprises data packets associated with a radio bearer.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to:
receive an indication to operate in one of at least a first mode, a second mode, or a third mode;
wherein the first mode indicates to the user equipment to cause a respective duplicate of a respective data packet of the plurality of data packets to be transmitted;
wherein the second mode indicates to the user equipment to determine, with the user equipment, the at least one criterion in connection with the at least one transmission parameter of the at least one part of one of the plurality of data packets;
wherein the third mode indicates to the user equipment that the at least one criterion in connection with the at least one transmission parameter of the at least one part of one of the plurality of data packets is received from a network node.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to receive an indication to transmit the duplicate of the at least one determined data packet in at least one reserved radio resource comprising at least one physical uplink shared channel.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to receive an indication to transmit the duplicate of the at least one determined data packet in at least one reserved radio resource, wherein the indication comprises configuration of logical channel prioritization restrictions.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
configure a timer comprising a time period during which the user equipment determines whether the at least one criterion is met; and
cause the duplicate of the at least one determined data packet to be transmitted, when the at least one criterion is met is at a time within the time period.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
cause the duplicate of the at least one determined data packet to be transmitted, when the at least one criterion determined with the user equipment is not met, in response to receiving a request.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to:
store a duplicate of at least one other data packet in a buffer for a first time period, the first time period given with a timer;
start the timer, in response to storing the duplicate of the at least one other data packet in the buffer; and
remove the duplicate of the at least one other data packet from the buffer, in response to determining not to transmit the duplicate of the at least one other data packet, or upon expiration of the timer.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one criterion in connection with the at least one transmission parameter comprises one of:
a modulation order of the at least one part of the at least one data packet being higher than a quadrature phase shift keying value, or lower than a quadrature amplitude modulation value,
a modulation and coding scheme index of the at least one part of the at least one data packet being higher or lower than a modulation and coding scheme index threshold,
a code rate of the at least one part of the at least one data packet being higher or lower than a code rate threshold value,
a transmission power of the at least one part of the at least one data packet being higher or lower than a transmission power threshold value,
a number of negative acknowledgements received in response to transmission of data of the at least one data packet being higher than a negative acknowledgement threshold, wherein the duplicate is transmitted when the number of negative acknowledgements is higher than the negative acknowledgement threshold, or
a grant type associated with transmission of the at least one part of the at least one data packet being dynamic or configured.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the data packets are protocol data units (PDUs) of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) sublayer.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one transmission parameter comprises a spatial multiplexing rank of the at least one part of the at least one data packet.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
update the at least one criterion based on a current network status.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to:
receive, from a lower layer, an indication of the at least one transmission parameter related to processing of the duplicate of the at least one determined data packet, wherein the lower layer comprises a physical layer, medium access control layer, or a radio link control layer.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to:
cause the plurality of data packets to be transmitted on a first carrier frequency, and the duplicate of the at least one determined data packet to be transmitted on a second carrier frequency different from the first carrier frequency.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one criterion in connection with the at least one transmission parameter comprises:
a power headroom of the apparatus at the time of transmission of the at least one part of the at least one data packet being smaller than a threshold, and the apparatus causes the duplicate of the at least one determined data packet to be transmitted when the power headroom of the apparatus is smaller than the threshold.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
receive an indication to operate in one of at least a first mode, a second mode, or a third mode;
when the indication comprises the first mode, the indication causes the user equipment to:
cause a respective duplicate of a respective determined at least one of the plurality of data packets to be transmitted;

when the indication comprises the second mode, the indication causes the user equipment to:
determine, with the user equipment, the at least one criterion in connection with

Assignees

• Nokia Technologies Oy

Inventors

• Kuo Ping-Heng
• Koziol Dawid
• Baker Matthew

Classifications

• H04L1/08 Primary

  by repeating transmission, e.g. Verdan system {(H04L1/1858 and H04L1/189 take precedence)} · CPC title

• H04L1/1874

  Buffer management · CPC title

• H04L5/0032

  Distributed allocation, i.e. involving a plurality of allocating devices, each making partial allocation · CPC title

• H04W72/569

  of the traffic information · CPC title