Network device and method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017054530-A1
Application number	US-201615345632-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 8, 2016
Priority date	May 8, 2014
Publication date	Feb 23, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present invention relates to a network device ( 1 ) for joint decoding of received signals in a cellular wireless communication system ( 50 ) comprising a plurality of spatially distributed base stations ( 10 ) interconnected to said network device ( 1 ) by means of at least one backhaul interface having a round-trip delay being larger than a transmission interval for a HARQ cycle of a HARQ algorithm employed by the cellular wireless communication system ( 50 ), said network device ( 1 ) comprising a processor ( ) adapted to: receive a plurality of baseband signals (BBSs) corresponding to uplink signals received by said plurality of base stations ( 10 ) in uplink radio links, said uplink signals being associated with an uplink transmission (ULT) from a user device ( 20 ); and decode said uplink transmission (ULT) from said user device ( 20 ) by combining said plurality of baseband signals (BBSs).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . Network device for joint decoding of received signals in a cellular wireless communication system comprising a plurality of spatially distributed base stations ( 10 ) interconnected to said network device by means of at least one backhaul interface having a round-trip delay being larger than a transmission interval for a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, cycle of a HARQ algorithm employed by the cellular wireless communication system, said network device comprising:
a memory storing instructions; and a processor coupled to the memory to execute the instructions to: receive a plurality of baseband signals (BBSs) corresponding to uplink signals received by said plurality of base stations in uplink radio links, said uplink signals being associated with an uplink transmission (ULT) from a user device; and decode said uplink transmission (ULT) from said user device by combining said plurality of baseband signals (BBSs).

2 . Network device according to claim 1 , wherein the cellular wireless communication system is adapted to provide more uplink radio links from said user device than downlink radio links to said user device during said uplink transmission (ULT).

3 . Network device according to claim 1 , said processor further adapted to establish the uplink radio links after sharing at least one transmission signature for said user device.

4 . Network device according to claim 1 , said instructions further comprising: combine said plurality of baseband signals using soft combining or selection combining.

5 . Network device according to claim 1 , wherein said network device is a central network controller, or an integrated part thereof, and said instructions further comprising: send an Acknowledgement, ACK, or a Negative Acknowledgement, NACK, to said plurality of base stations based on a result of the decoding of said uplink transmission (ULT).

6 . Network device according to claim 1 wherein said network device is a base station, or an integrated part thereof.

7 . Network device according to claim 6 , wherein said base station is a serving base station for said user device.

8 . Network device according to claim 6 , wherein said base station is a base station having a lowest computational load among said plurality of base stations.

9 . Network device according to claim 6 , said instructions further comprising: send an ACK or a NACK to said user device based on a result of the decoding of said uplink transmission (ULT).

10 . Network device according to claim 7 , said instructions further comprising: combine baseband signals (BBSs) corresponding to uplink signals for previous n−1 HARQ transmissions and a baseband signal (BBS) corresponding to an uplink signal for n-th HARQ transmission associated with said serving base station from said user device.

11 . Network device according to claim 1 , said instructions further comprising: combine baseband signals (BBSs) corresponding to uplink signals for first n HARQ transmissions from each of said plurality of base stations).

12 . Network device according to claim 1 , wherein the HARQ algorithm is configured to send an ACK at n-th HARQ transmission of a HARQ process associated with said user device even if a decoded result from the n HARQ transmissions at individual base stations is unsuccessful.

13 . Network device according to claim 1 , said instructions further comprising: receive at least one of said plurality of baseband signals (BBSs) over the backhaul interface.

14 . Network device according to claim 1 , wherein said transmission interval is a time period between said uplink transmission and a transmission of an ACK or a NACK to said user device.

15 . Method for joint decoding of received signals in a cellular wireless communication system comprising a plurality of spatially distributed base stations interconnected to a network device by means of at least one backhaul interface having a round-trip delay being larger than a transmission interval for a HARQ cycle of a HARQ algorithm employed by the cellular wireless communication system, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving a plurality of baseband signals (BBSs) corresponding to uplink signals received by said plurality of base stations in uplink radio links, said uplink signals being associated with an uplink transmission (ULT) from a user device; and decoding said uplink transmission (ULT) from said user device by combining said plurality of baseband signals (BBSs).

16 . Computer program with a program code for performing a method according to claim 15 when the computer program runs on a computer.

Assignees

• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Calabrese Francescodavide
• Cao Yang
• Legg Peter
• Tan Chengqun
• Yu Yang

Classifications

• H04W72/23

  in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal · CPC title

• H04W72/21

  in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network · CPC title

• H04W72/042

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W72/0413

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L1/1812 Primary

  Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ] · CPC title