Reference signal presence detecton based license assisted access and reference signal sequence design

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016173249-A1
Application number	US-201514747663-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 23, 2015
Priority date	Dec 15, 2014
Publication date	Jun 16, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A user equipment device comprises physical layer circuitry configured to transmit and receive radio frequency electrical signals with one or more nodes of a radio access network, including monitor at least one of a communication channel unlicensed to a long term evolution (LTE) network (LTE-U) or a communication channel of a licensed assisted access (LAA) network and detect a reference signal (RS) of a subframe communicated using the at least one communication channel; and processing circuitry configured to measure a channel metric over at least a portion of the subframe that includes the RS, and process information included in the subframe according to an LTE communication protocol when the measured channel metric satisfies a specified channel metric threshold value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . User equipment device (UE) comprising:
physical layer circuitry configured to transmit and receive radio frequency electrical signals with one or more nodes of a radio access network, including to:
monitor at least one of a communication channel unlicensed to a long term evolution (LTE) network (LTE-U) or a communication channel of a licensed assisted access (LAA) network; and
detect a reference signal (RS) of a subframe communicated using the at least one communication channel; and
processing circuitry configured to:
measure a channel metric over at least a portion of the subframe that includes the RS; and
process information included in the subframe according to an LTE communication protocol when the measured channel metric satisfies a specified channel metric threshold value.

2 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry includes a RS sequence generator module configured to generate an RS of an RS sequence that is unique to the UE among UEs operating within a specific physical cell (PCell); and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to communicate the RS via the at least one communication channel.

3 . The UE of claim 2 , wherein the physical layer circuitry is configured to receive PCell information using the UE and the RS sequence generator module is configured to generate the RS of the RS sequence using the received PCell information.

4 . The UE of claim 3 , wherein the PCell information includes at least one of a public land mobile network (PLMN) identity or an evolved cell global identifier (E-CGI).

5 . The UE of claim 3 , wherein the RS sequence generator module includes a pseudo-random number sequence generator module and a scrambling module, wherein the scrambling module is configured to scramble a pseudo-random number sequence generated by the pseudo-random number sequence generator module with the PCell information, and wherein the RS sequence module is configured to obtain the RS sequence using the scrambled pseudo random number sequence.

6 . The UE of claim 3 , wherein the RS sequence generator module includes a pseudo-random number sequence generator module, and wherein the RS sequence generator module is configured to initialize a pseudo-random sequence generated by the pseudo-random sequence generator module with an initial pseudo-random sequence value modified with the PCell information and obtain the RS sequence using a pseudo-random sequence generated using the modified initial pseudo-random sequence value.

7 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein processing circuitry is configured to decode at least one of physical downlink control channel PDCCH information, enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) information, or physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) information using subframe information when the measured channel metric satisfies a specified channel metric threshold value.

8 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein processing circuitry is configured to estimate one or more channel characteristics when the measured channel metric satisfies a specified channel metric threshold value, and communicate channel state information (CSI) using the one or more channel characteristics.

9 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein the physical layer circuitry is configured to:
communicate with at least one of a network node device or another UE using a frequency band licensed to a long term evolution (LTE) network; and to communicate with an access point device or a network station device using at least one of a frequency band unlicensed to an LTE network (LTE-U) or a frequency band of a licensed assisted access (LAA) network.

10 . The UE of claim 1 , including a plurality of antennas conductively coupled to the physical layer circuitry.

11 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of user equipment (UE) to perform operations to configure the UE to:
monitor a communication channel using the UE, wherein the communication channel is at least one of a communication channel unlicensed to a long term evolution (LTE) network (LTE-U) or a communication channel of a licensed assisted access (LAA) network; detect a reference signal (RS) of a subframe communicated using the communication channel; measure a channel metric over at least a portion of the subframe that includes the RS; and process information included in the subframe according to an LTE communication protocol when the measured channel metric satisfies a specified channel metric threshold value.

12 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , including instructions to perform operations to configure the UE to:
generate an RS of an RS sequence using the UE device, wherein the RS of the RS sequence is unique to a UE operating in a specific physical cell (PCell); and communicate the RS via the communication channel.

13 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , including instructions to perform operations to configure the UE to receive PCell information using the UE, and generate the RS of an RS sequence by the UE using the received PCell information.

14 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , including instructions to perform operations to configure the UE to: initialize a pseudo-random sequence generated by the UE with an initial pseudo-random sequence value modified with the PCell information; obtain the RS sequence using a pseudo-random sequence generated by the UE with the modified initial pseudo-random sequence value; and communicate the RS via the communication channel.

15 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , including instructions to perform operations to configure the UE to generate a pseudo-random number sequence using the UE, scramble the generated pseudo random number sequence with the PCell information, and use the scrambled pseudo random number sequence to produce the RS sequence.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , including instructions to perform operations to configure the UE to: receive PCell information that includes at least one of a public land mobile network (PLMN) identity information or an evolved cell global identifier (E-CGI) information; and generate the RS of an RS sequence using the at least one of the PLMN identity information or the E-CGI information.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , including instructions to perform operations to configure the UE to: estimate channel characteristics using the measured channel metric and communicating channel state information (CSI) according to the channel characteristics.

18 . An apparatus of a user equipment device (UE) of a cellular network, the apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to:
measure a channel metric over at least a portion of a subframe communicated by a separate device using at least one of a communication channel unlicensed to a long term evolution (LTE) network (LTE-U) or a communication channel of a licensed assisted access (LAA) network, wherein the channel metric is measured over at least a portion of the subframe that includes a reference signal (RS); and decode at least one of physical downlink control channel PDCCH information, enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) information, or physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) information when the measured channel metric satisfies a specified channel metric threshold value.

19 . The apparatus of c

Assignees

• Kwon Hwan-Joon
• Heo Youn Hyoung
• Han Seunghee
• Zong Pingping
• Zhuang Xiangyang

Inventors

• Kwon Hwan-Joon
• Heo Youn Hyoung
• Han Seunghee
• Zong Pingping
• Zhuang Xiangyang

Classifications

• H04W24/08

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title

• H04L5/0007

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

• H04L5/0048 Primary

  Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver (allocation of control signalling H04L5/0053; use of control signalling H04L5/0091) · CPC title

• H04W16/14 Primary

  Spectrum sharing arrangements {between different networks} · CPC title

• H04L27/0006

  Assessment of spectral gaps suitable for allocating digitally modulated signals, e.g. for carrier allocation in cognitive radio (for spectrum sharing between different networks H04W16/14) · CPC title