Replication in a wireless communication network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12470979-B2
Application number	US-202118024575-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 1, 2021
Priority date	Sep 4, 2020
Publication date	Nov 11, 2025
Grant date	Nov 11, 2025

Abstract

A wireless communication device ( 412 ) replicates, at a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer of a protocol stack of the wireless communication device ( 412 ), an original packet associated to a particular service to provide one or more replicate packets. Each of the one or more replicate packets is a replication of the original packet. For each packet from among a set of packets consisting of the original packet and at least one of the one or more replicate packets, the wireless communication device ( 412 ) generates a transport block that comprises the packet and transmits the transport block to one or more base stations or transmission/reception points, TRPs, via a physical layer of the protocol stack of the wireless communication device ( 412 ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method performed by a wireless communication device, the method comprising:
replicating, at a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer of a protocol stack of the wireless communication device, an original packet associated to a particular service to provide one or more replicate packets, wherein each of the one or more replicate packets is a replication of the original packet; for each packet from among a set of packets consisting of the original packet and at least one of the one or more replicate packets:
generating a transport block that comprises the packet; and
transmitting the transport block to one or more base stations or transmission/reception points (TRPs) via a physical layer of the protocol stack of the wireless communication device.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the generated transport blocks further comprises data associated to one or more other services that is multiplexed within the transport block with the respective packet, and wherein the one or more other services include a mobile broadband (MBB) service.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the transport block via the physical layer of the protocol stack of the wireless communication device comprises transmitting the transport block in accordance with requirements of the particular service.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, from a network node, information related to replication of packets at the RLC layer, wherein said replicating is performed based on the received information, wherein the information comprises:
a) information that indicates that replication is allowed for one or more logical channels; b) information that indicates a maximum number of replications allowed for one or more logical channels at the RLC layer; c) information that indicates a fixed number of replications allowed for one or more logical channels at the RLC layer; or d) a combination of two or more of (a)-(c).

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, from a network node, information related to replication of packets at the RLC layer, wherein said replicating is performed based on the received information, wherein the information comprises:
a) information that indicates that multiplexing of any original RLC packet and one or more replicate RLC packets of the original RLC packet in a same Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) is not allowed; b) information that indicates whether physical layer diversity is to be used for transmission of an original RLC packet and one or more replicate RLC packets of the original RLC packet; or c) both (a) and (b).

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining how many of the one or more replicate packets to provide via said replicating, based on either:
signaling received from a network node indicating how many of the one or more replicate packets to provide via said replicating; or a channel state measured by the wireless communication device.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, before all of the one or more replicate packets have been transmitted:
receiving, from a network node, information that indicates that the original packet or one of the one or more replicate packets has been successfully received by the network node; and stopping transmission of any of the one or more replicate packets that have not yet been transmitted as of reception of the information from the network node.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein receiving the information that indicates that the original packet or one of the one or more replicate packets has been successfully received by the network node comprises:
receiving a status report that indicates that the original packet or one of the one or more replicate packets has been successfully received by a respective entity at the network node; or receiving a Downlink Control Information (DCI) message that indicates a toggled New Data Indicator (NDI) for a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer associated to the one or more replicate packets.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the original packet is an original RLC packet associated to a particular logical channel, wherein the particular logical channel is associated to the particular service, and wherein the one or more replicate packets are one or more replicate RLC packets, wherein each replicate RLC packet is a replication of the original RLC packet, and wherein, for each RLC packet from among the set of packets, generating the transport block for the RLC packet comprises multiplexing the RLC packet and one or more additional RLC packets that are associated to one or more other logical channels in the transport block.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the original packet is an original RLC packet associated to a particular logical channel, wherein the particular logical channel is associated to the particular service, wherein the method further comprises receiving a dynamic indication to start replication of packets for the particular logical channel, wherein the dynamic indication is comprised in a MAC Control Element (CE) or a DCI message, wherein replicating the original packet associated to the particular service comprises replicating the original packet based on:
having received the dynamic indication to start replication; and since having received the dynamic indication to start replication, not having received a dynamic indication to stop replication for the particular logical channel.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transport blocks comprising the original packet and the one or more replicate packets are transmitted to multiple different network nodes or TRPs and/or are transmitted on multiple different cells.

12 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting, to a network node, a buffer status report that includes:
a first field that reports a total buffer size of a logical channel group that contains multiple logical channels, including a logical channel associated to the particular service; and a second field that reports a total buffer size of replicated data of the multiple logical channels within the logical channel group.

13 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving an uplink grant scheduling the wireless communication device for transmission in multiple slots, and determining, based on how many slots are scheduled by the uplink grant, how many of the one or more replicate packets to provide via said replicating.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular service is an Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) service.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the original packet is an original RLC Protocol Data Unit (PDU).

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said replicating is performed by a transmitting RLC entity at the RLC layer, wherein the original packet and each of the one or more replicate packets is an RLC packet.

17 . A method performed by a base station, the method comprising:
providing, to a wireless communication device, information related to replication of packets by the wireless communication device at a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer of a protocol stack of the wireless communication device; wherein the replication of packets is such that the wireless communication device is to replicate an original packet associated to a particular service to provide one or more replicate packets of the original packet and to transmit each packet, from among the original packet and at least one of the one or more replicate packets, in a respective transpo

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Sun Ying
• Dudda Torsten
• Blankenship Yufei
• Zou Zhenhua
• Muruganathan Siva
• Määttänen Helka-Liina

Classifications

• H04L1/189

  Transmission or retransmission of more than one copy of a message · CPC title

• H04L1/1887

  Scheduling and prioritising arrangements · CPC title

• H04W28/04 Primary

  Error control · CPC title

• H04L1/08 Primary

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