Wireless communication utilizing a unified air interface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016112992-A1
Application number	US-201514699986-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 29, 2015
Priority date	Oct 16, 2014
Publication date	Apr 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Various aspects of the present disclosure provide for methods, apparatus, and computer software for enabling a single media access control (MAC) layer to control a variety of physical (PHY) layers or entities for multiplexing signals corresponding to each of the PHY layers over an air interface. Here, the MAC layer may include a resource manager configured to determine a time-frequency resource allocation within the air interface for communication with one or more subordinate entities utilizing each of the PHY layers. In this way, The MAC entity may provide dynamic control over the allocation of time-frequency resources within a given resource group, which may include transmission time intervals (TTIs) having multiple time scales.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A scheduling entity configured for wireless communication, comprising:
at least one processor; a computer-readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one processor; and a plurality of physical communication entities communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, the physical communication entities being configured for wireless communication utilizing respective waveforms, channel access modes, and/or link adaptation schemes, wherein the at least one processor is configured to control a media access control (MAC) entity, the MAC entity being configured to control each of the plurality of physical communication entities to multiplex signals corresponding to each of the plurality of physical communication entities over an air interface, the MAC entity comprising a resource manager configured to determine a time-frequency resource allocation within the air interface for communication with one or more subordinate entities utilizing each of the physical communication entities.

2 . The scheduling entity of claim 1 , wherein the MAC entity is further configured to transmit a signaling message to the one or more subordinate entities, the signaling message configured to indicate the time-frequency resource allocation within the air interface.

3 . The scheduling entity of claim 2 , wherein the resource manager is configured to segment a resource group into a plurality of regions including a first region comprising time-frequency resources for asynchronous channel access and a second region comprising time-frequency resources for synchronous channel access, the resource group comprising a set of time-frequency resources available for wireless communication over the air interface,
wherein the signaling message is configured to indicate the segmentation of the resource group.

4 . The scheduling entity of claim 3 , wherein the first region is separated from the second region in frequency.

5 . The scheduling entity of claim 4 , wherein the resource manager is configured to separate the first region from the second region with a guard band between the first region and the second region.

6 . The scheduling entity of claim 3 , wherein the signaling message comprises system information signaling, and wherein the MAC entity is configured to broadcast the system information signaling to the one or more subordinate entities according to a timing interval corresponding to a plurality of frames.

7 . The scheduling entity of claim 3 , wherein the resource manager is further configured to segment the time-frequency resources within the first region into a plurality of sub-regions including a first sub-region comprising time-frequency resources for a code division multiple access (CDMA) channel access mode, and a second sub-region comprising time-frequency resources for a random access channel access mode.

8 . The scheduling entity of claim 7 , wherein the resource manager is further configured to segment the time-frequency resources into the first region and the second region, and to segment the time-frequency resources within the first region into the CDMA channel access mode and the random access channel access mode, in accordance with information about activation or deactivation of one or more existing flows that utilize time-frequency resources in the resource group, and resource utilization statistics of the regions and sub-regions of the resource group.

9 . The scheduling entity of claim 7 , wherein the first sub-region is separated from the second sub-region in frequency.

10 . The scheduling entity of claim 9 , wherein the resource manager is configured to separate the first sub-region from the second sub-region with a guard band between the first sub-region and the second sub-region.

11 . The scheduling entity of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of sub-regions within the first region further includes a third sub-region comprising time-frequency resources for a carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) or listen before talk (LBT) channel access mode.

12 . The scheduling entity of claim 7 , wherein the signaling message comprises system information signaling, and wherein the MAC entity is configured to broadcast the system information signaling to the one or more subordinate entities.

13 . The scheduling entity of claim 3 , wherein the resource manager is further configured to segment the time-frequency resources within the second region into a plurality of sub-regions including a first sub-region comprising time-frequency resources for a scheduled channel access mode, and a second sub-region comprising time-frequency resources for an autonomous channel access mode.

14 . The scheduling entity of claim 13 , wherein the resource manager is further configured to segment the time-frequency resources within the second region into the scheduled channel access mode and the autonomous channel access mode, in accordance with a buffer status of one or more active flows utilizing the autonomous channel access mode or the scheduled channel access mode.

15 . The scheduling entity of claim 13 , wherein the signaling message comprises system information signaling configured to indicate the segmentation between the first sub-region and the second sub-region, and wherein the MAC entity is configured to broadcast the system information signaling to the one or more subordinate entities according to a timing interval corresponding to a plurality of subframes.

16 . The scheduling entity of claim 13 , wherein the scheduled channel access mode comprises a first sub-sub-region for communication utilizing superposed waveforms and a second sub-sub-region for communication utilizing orthogonal waveforms.

17 . The scheduling entity of claim 16 , wherein the signaling message comprises superposed scheduling information configured to indicate time-frequency resources scheduled for the superposed waveforms, and wherein the resource manager is further configured to transmit the superposed scheduling information as a unicast message according to a timing interval corresponding to a subframe.

18 . The scheduling entity of claim 13 , wherein the resource manager is further configured to override an assignment of time-frequency resources within the first sub-region to provide for a mission-critical transmission.

19 . The scheduling entity of claim 18 , wherein the signaling message comprises mission-critical override signaling configured to indicate the override of the assignment of time-frequency resources, and wherein the MAC entity is configured to broadcast the mission-critical override signaling to the one or more subordinate entities according to a timing interval corresponding to less than one subframe.

20 . The scheduling entity of claim 19 , wherein the signaling message further comprises mission-critical resource assignment signaling configured to indicate a scheduling of resources for mission-critical communication, and wherein the MAC entity is configured to transmit the mission-critical resource assignment signaling as a unicast message.

21 . The scheduling entity of claim 2 , wherein the MAC entity, being configured to transmit the signaling message to the one or more subordinate entities, is further configured to utilize a first physical communication entity of the plurality of physical communication entities for the transmission of the signaling message,
wherein the signaling message comprises scheduling information for scheduling time-frequency resources for utilization

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Bhushan Naga
• Smee John Edward
• Soriaga Joseph Binamira
• Mukkavilli Krishna Kiran
• Ji Tingfang

Classifications

• H04W72/53

  based on regulatory allocation policies · CPC title

• H04W72/535

  based on resource usage policies · CPC title

• H04L5/0042 Primary

  Intra-user or intra-terminal allocation · CPC title

• H04W72/1263

  Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows · CPC title

• H04L5/0007

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