Method and apparatus for control and data multiplexing in a MIMO communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9236985-B2
Application number	US-76487110-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 21, 2010
Priority date	Apr 23, 2009
Publication date	Jan 12, 2016
Grant date	Jan 12, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methodologies are described herein that facilitate control and data multiplexing for uplink (UL) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication within a wireless communication system. As described herein, a device conducting uplink MIMO communication in a wireless communication system can multiplex control signaling and data across one or more of a plurality of layers (e.g., corresponding to spatial layers, codewords, etc.) associated with an uplink transmission. Techniques are described herein for selecting layers of a transmission on which to schedule control signaling and selecting offsets to apply to the control signaling scheduled on selected layers. Further, techniques are described herein for leveraging a multi-layer transmission to increase the efficiency of acknowledgement communication. In addition, techniques are described for selecting a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to apply to control signaling that is combined with data in an uplink multi-layer transmission.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
identifying control information to be transmitted to one or more network entities;
obtaining information relating to a plurality of layers designated for uplink multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmission;
selecting the plurality of layers on which to schedule uplink MIMO transmission of a first type of the control information, wherein the first type of control information comprises one or more acknowledgement (ACK)/negative acknowledgement (NACK) bits corresponding to one or more downlink transmissions;
selecting only one layer from the plurality of layers on which to schedule uplink MIMO transmission of a second type of the control information, wherein the second type of control information comprises channel state information (CSI); and
transmitting, via one or more antennas, at least a portion of the control information on the selected plurality of layers and the selected only one layer.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selecting the only one layer comprises:
identifying a layer in the plurality of layers determined to have a lowest code rate or modulation order among the layers in the plurality of layers; and
selecting the layer on which to schedule uplink MIMO transmission of the second type of control information.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selecting the only one layer comprises:
identifying a layer in the plurality of layers determined to have a highest code rate or modulation order among the layers in the plurality of layers; and
selecting the layer on which to schedule uplink MIMO transmission of the second type of control information.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising applying respective offsets to control information scheduled for transmission on respective layers in the plurality of layers.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the applying comprises applying a layer-independent offset to at least a portion of the control information scheduled for transmission on respective layers in the plurality of layers.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the applying comprises:
applying respective variable offsets to at least a portion of the control information scheduled for transmission on respective layers in the plurality of layers; and
determining a value for the respective variable offsets based on at least one of properties of respective layers on which transmission of the control information is scheduled or a number of layers on which transmission of the control information is scheduled.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the control information comprises one or more acknowledgement (ACK)/negative acknowledgement (NACK) bits corresponding to one or more downlink transmissions over at least one of different subframes or different carriers; and
the selecting comprises jointly coding the one or more ACK/NACK bits and selecting one or more layers from the plurality of layers on which to schedule uplink MIMO transmission of the one or more ACK/NACK bits.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the control information comprises one or more acknowledgement (ACK)/negative acknowledgement (NACK) bits corresponding to one or more downlink transmissions over at least one of different subframes or different carriers; and
the selecting comprises splitting the one or more ACK/NACK bits into a plurality of groups and selecting one or more layers from the plurality of layers on which to schedule uplink MIMO transmission of respective groups of the ACK/NACK bits.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for transmission of at least a portion of the control information on one or more layers respectively selected for the control information.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the control information includes acknowledgement (ACK)/negative acknowledgement (NACK) information and rank information; and
the determining comprises:
selecting a modulation scheme for the ACK/NACK information and rank information from the group consisting of binary phase shift keying (BPSK) and quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK); and
performing coding and scrambling for the ACK/NACK information and rank information such that Euclidian distances between modulation constellations associated with the ACK/NACK information and the rank information are substantially maximized.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the control information includes at least one of acknowledgement (ACK) / negative acknowledgement (NACK) information or rank information; and
the determining comprises selecting a MCS for the control information by performing at least one of:
selecting a MCS associated with channel quality information or precoding information for transmission of at least a portion of ACK/NACK information or rank information;
coding at least one of ACK/NACK information or rank information according to a (n, k) coding scheme for predetermined values of n and k; or
modulating at least one of ACK/NACK information or rank information according to quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) such that a parity bit provided via an associated QPSK constellation is utilized to carry additional ACK/NACK information or rank information.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the control information includes channel quality information; and
the determining comprises selecting a MCS for transmission of at least a portion of the channel quality information that is associated with data to be transmitted with the channel quality information.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of layers corresponds to at least one of spatial layers or codewords.

14. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:
a memory that stores data relating to control information to be transmitted to one or more network entities and a plurality of layers designated for uplink multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmission;
a processor configured to select the plurality of layers on which to schedule uplink MIMO transmission of a first type of the control information, wherein the first type of control information comprises one or more acknowledgement (ACK)/negative acknowledgement (NACK) bits corresponding to one or more downlink transmissions, and to select only one layer from the plurality of layers on which to schedule uplink MIMO transmission of a second type of the control information, wherein the second of type of control information comprises channel state information (CSI); and
a transmitter to transmit, via one or more antennas, at least a portion of the control information on the selected plurality of layers and the selected only one layer.

15. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to identify a layer in the plurality of layers determined to have a lowest code rate or modulation order among the layers in the plurality of layers and to select the layer on which to schedule uplink MIMO transmission of the second type of control information.

16. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to identify a layer in the plurality of layers determined to have a highest code rate or modulation order among the layers in the plurality of layers and to select the layer on which to schedule uplink MIMO transmission of the second type of control information.

17. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to apply respective offsets to control information scheduled for transmission on respective layers in the plurality of layers.

Assignees

• Chen Wanshi
• Zhang Xiaoxia
• Montojo Juan
• Malladi Durga Prasad
• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Chen Wanshi
• Zhang Xiaoxia
• Montojo Juan
• Malladi Durga Prasad

Classifications

• H04L1/007

  Unequal error protection (for format H04L1/0078; for codes per se H03M13/35) · CPC title

• H04L1/06

  using space diversity · CPC title

• H04L5/0053

  Allocation of signalling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals · CPC title

• H04L1/1812

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

• H04B7/0689

  using different transmission schemes, at least one of them being a diversity transmission scheme · CPC title