Base station, user equipment for integrating multiple rats using carrier aggregation and methods thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016149686-A1
Application number	US-201514887346-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 20, 2015
Priority date	Nov 20, 2014
Publication date	May 26, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A base station, for integrating multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs) using Carrier Aggregation (CA) inlcudes a WAN MAC entity, an adapter and a WLAN entity. The adapter is connected to one of a plurality of HARQ buffers and receives DL WAN MPDUs stored in the HARQ buffer, and converts the DL WAN MPDUs into a pluarlity of DL WLAN MPDUs. The WLAN MAC entity is coupled to the adapter, receives the DL WLAN MPDUs, wherein the WAN MAC entity respectively transmit the DL WAN MPDUs through transport channels, and the WLAN MAC entity transmits the DL WLAN MPDUs to be time-aligned with the DL WAN MPDUs.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A base station, for integrating multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATS) using Carrier Aggregation (CA), comprising:
a Wide Area Network (WAN) Media Access Control (MAC) entity, and the WAN MAC entity comprises:
a scheduler, assigns a plurality of Downlink (DL) WAN MAC Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) to a plurality of transport channels;
a plurality of Hybrid Automatic Repeat request (HARQ) buffers, connected to the scheduler and each of the HARQ buffers respectively connects to one of the transport channels, wherein each of the HARQ buffers stores part of the DL WAN MPDUs; and
a multiplexer, coupled to the scheduler, connected between the scheduler and the HARQ buffers, the multiplexer distributes the DL WAN MPDUs to the HARQ buffers according to the assignation from the scheduler;
a first adapter, connected to a first HARQ buffer of the HARQ buffers, receives the DL WAN MPDUs stored in the first HARQ buffer, and converts the DL WAN MPDUs into a pluarlity of DL Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) MPDUs; and a first WLAN MAC entity, coupled to the first adapter, receives the DL WLAN MPDUs, wherein the WAN MAC entity respectively transmit the DL WAN MPDUs through the transport channels, and the first WLAN MAC entity transmits the DL WLAN MPDUs to be time-aligned with the DL WAN MPDUs.

2 . The base station as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the base station further comprises:
a second adapter, connected to a second HARQ buffer of the HARQ buffers, receives the DL WAN MPDUs stored in the second HARQ buffer, and converts the DL WAN MPDUs into the DL WLAN MPDUs; and a second WLAN MAC entity, coupled to the second adapter, receives the DL WLAN MPDUs, wherein the WAN MAC entity respectively transmit the DL WAN MPDUs through the transport channels, and the first WLAN MAC entity and the second WLAN MAC entity transmit the DL WLAN MPDUs to be time-aligned with the DL WAN MPDUs.

3 . The base station as claimed in claim 1 , wherein
the DL WAN MPDUs comprises a first DL WAN MPDU and a second DL WAN MPDU, wherein the scheduler of the WAN MAC entity schedules to transmit the first DL WAN MPDU through the first WLAN MAC entity at time point Ttx, and schedules to transmit the second DL WAN MPDU through the first WLAN MAC entity at time point T′tx, wherein the T′tx=Ttx+Δ, and Δ is a positive value bigger than 1 msec; the WAN MAC entity deteremines whether a WAN ACK message in response to the first DL WAN MPDU is received through the first adapter before time point T′tx; and if the WAN ACK message in response to the first DL WAN MPDU is received through the first adapter before time point T′tx, the scheduler transmits the second DL WAN MPDU through the first WLAN MAC entity at time point T′tx as scheduled.

4 . The base station as claimed in claim 3 , wherein
the first WLAN MAC entity receives a WLAN ACK message in response to the first DL WAN MPDU, and transmits the WLAN ACK message to the first adapter; and the first adapter converts the WLAN ACK message into the WAN ACK message.

5 . The base station as claimed in claim 3 , wherein
if the WAN ACK message in response to the first DL WAN MPDU is not received through the first adapter before time point T′tx, the scheduler schedules to re-transmit the first DL WAN MPDU through the first WLAN MAC entity at time point T′tx; and the first adapter ignores the re-transmitted first DL WAN MPDU when receving the re-transmitted first DL WAN MPDU.

6 . The base station as claimed in claim 3 , wherein
if the WAN ACK message in response to the first DL WAN MPDU is not received through the first adapter before time point T′tx and a WAN retransmission limit of the WAN MAC entity is reached, the scheduler transmits the second DL WAN MPDU toggled with a New Data Indicator (NDI) through the first WLAN MAC entity at time point T′tx.

7 . The base station as claimed in claim 1 , wherein
the first adapter comprises a plurality of HARQ process IDs correponding to a plurality of process queues in the HARQ buffer connected to the first adapter, and a mapping table comprising a WLAN MAC address and a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of each of a plurality of User Equipments (UEs) in a radio coverage of the base station; and the first adapter converts the DL WAN MPDUs stored in each of the process queues into the DL WLAN MPDUs according to the mapping table, and the appends one of the HARQ process IDs in a header of each of DL WLAN MPDUs correspondingly.

8 . The base station as claimed in claim 1 , wherein
the WLAN MPDUs are 802.11 MAC frames; and when the size of one of the WAN MPDUs is larger than the size of a frame body of a 802.11 MAC frame, the first adapter fregments the WAN MPDU into several WLAN MPDUs during conversion.

9 . The base station as claimed in claim 1 , wherein
at time point Ttx, the WAN MAC entity transmits a first uplink (UL) grant message through a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) from a primary Component Carrier (CC), and the scheduler of the WAN MAC entity determines whether a ULWAN MPDU in response to the first UL grant message is received through the first adapter before time point T′tx, wherein the T′tx=Ttx+Δ, and Δ is a positive value bigger than 1 msec; and if the UL WAN MPDU is received through the first adapter before time point T′tx, the WAN MAC entity transmits a second UL grant message.

10 . The base station as claimed in claim 9 , wherein
if the UL WAN MPDU is not received through the first adapter before time point T′tx and a WAN retransmission limit is not reached, the WAN MAC entity transmits a NACK message on PHICH from the primary CC; and if the WAN MPDU is not received through the first adapter before time point T′tx and the WAN retransmission limit is reached, the WAN MAC entity transmits the UL grant message.

11 . The base station as claimed in claim 9 , wherein
the WLAN MAC entity receives a UL WLAN MPDU, and transmits a WLAN ACK message in response to the UL WLAN MPDU; and the first adapter receives the UL WLAN MPDU from the WLAN MAC entity, coverts the UL WLAN MPDU into the UL WAN MPDU, and transmits the UL WAN MPDU to the WAN MAC entity.

12 . A method of integrating multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs) using Carrier Aggregation, for a base station to transmit data in a downlink path, comprising:
assigning a plurality of Downlink (DL) WAN MAC Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) to a plurality of transport channels; converting the DL WAN MPDUs corresponding to one of the transport channels into a pluarlity of DL WLAN MPDUs; and transmitting the DL WAN MPDUs through the transport channels, and transmitting the DL WLAN MPDUs to be time-aligned with the DL WAN MPDUs.

13 . The method as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the DL WAN MPDUs comprises a first DL WAN MPDU and a second DL WAN MPDU and the step of transmitting the DL WLAN MPDUs to be time-aligned with the DL WAN MPDUs comprising:
scheduling to transmit the first DL WAN MPDU through a WLAN MAC entity of the base station at time point Ttx, and schedules to transmit the second DL WAN MPDU through the WLAN MAC entity at time point T′tx, wherein the T′tx=Ttx+Δ, and Δ is a positive value bigger than 1 msec; and deteremining whether a WAN ACK message in response to the first DL WAN MPDU is received before time point T′tx, and if the WAN ACK message in response to the first DL WAN MPDU is received before time point T′tx, transmitting the second DL WAN MPDU through a first WLAN MAC entity at time point T′tx as scheduled.

14 . The method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein before the step of deteremining whether the WAN ACK message in re

Assignees

• Ind Tech Res Inst

Inventors

• Tsai Tzu-Jane

Classifications

• H04L5/0023

  Time-frequency-space · CPC title

• H04L1/1874

  Buffer management · CPC title

• H04W72/1263

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

• H04L5/001

  the frequencies being arranged in component carriers · CPC title

• H04L1/18

  Automatic repetition systems, e.g. Van Duuren systems · CPC title