Random access procedure with enhanced coverage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9301318-B2
Application number	US-65576307-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 18, 2007
Priority date	Jan 20, 2006
Publication date	Mar 29, 2016
Grant date	Mar 29, 2016

Abstract

A random access procedure for use by a UE wireless communication terminal in communicating with a base station (or Node-B or eNB) of a radio access network, and in particular a E-UTRA network. A random access preamble is sent by the UE via RACH separate and prior to a random access message burst, which is sent on SCH but not until the UE receives one or more messages indicating an acknowledgment of the preamble and providing an allocation on SCH for use in transmitting the message burst, and also providing a preamble identifier, which the radio access network can then use to request retransmission of the message burst if necessary.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
transmitting a message burst preamble by a user equipment over a random access channel of a wireless communication system, and including a signature with the preamble;
receiving by the user equipment, one or more messages in response to said transmission, said one or more messages indicating an acknowledgment of having received the preamble and providing a preamble identifier and a resource allocation of a shared channel; and
transmitting a message burst by the user equipment on the shared channel according to the resource allocation, and including an address in the message burst for use in identifying the user equipment.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the resource allocation is provided in a message separate from the message indicating the acknowledgment.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein if the user equipment has a temporary cell specific address then the user equipment uses the temporary cell specific address as the address.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a request for retransmission from the base station indicating the preamble identifier; and
retransmitting the message burst to the base station.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the request for retransmission is a signal from the base station on a downlink shared control channel indicating an uplink resource allocation and including the preamble identifier.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving an acknowledgement of the base station having received the message burst, wherein the acknowledgement is a signal from the base station on a downlink shared control channel indicating a downlink resource allocation and including the preamble identifier, and wherein the user equipment is configured to decode the signal and obtain an address indicated by the signal, and then compare the address with the address included by the user equipment in the message burst to determine if the acknowledgement is an acknowledgement of the message burst or instead the acknowledgement of a message burst from another user equipment.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting a portion of the message burst using a first narrow frequency range of the shared channel frequency range; and
transmitting another portion of the message burst using a second narrow frequency range of the shared channel frequency range different from the first narrow frequency range.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting the preamble in part using a first narrow frequency range of the random access channel frequency range and in part using a second narrow frequency range of the random access channel frequency range different from the first.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining from the one or more messages indicating the acknowledgement a digest of the signature or a signature number, and determining whether the acknowledgment is an acknowledgement of the preamble sent by the user equipment or an acknowledgment of a message from another user equipment wireless communication device.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving from the base station a further allocation of the shared channel for uplink of user data in response to the message burst, wherein the allocation is provided with the address provided by the user equipment, and wherein the message burst includes information bits providing information useable by the base station in determining the further allocation to assign to the user.

11. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium having computer-executable components comprising instructions for performing the method according to claim 1 .

12. An apparatus for use by a user equipment in communicating with a base station of a radio access network of a wireless communication system, comprising means for performing the method of claim 1 , where the means for performing the method comprises at least one processor and at least one non-transitory memory including computer program code at the user equipment.

13. An apparatus, comprising at least one processor and at least one non-transitory memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
transmit a message burst preamble, with a signature, to a base station of a radio access network over a random access channel of a wireless communication system;
receive from the base station in response one or more messages that indicate an acknowledgment of having received the preamble and that provide a preamble identifier and a resource allocation of a shared channel; and
provide a message burst for transmission to the base station on the shared channel according to the resource allocation, the message burst including an address for use in identifying a user equipment.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the apparatus is configured to receive the resource allocation in a message separate from the message indicating the acknowledgment.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the apparatus is so configured that if the user equipment has a temporary cell specific address then the user equipment uses the temporary cell specific address as the address.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the apparatus is further configured to:
receive a request for retransmission from the base station indicating the preamble identifier; and
provide the message burst for retransmission to the base station.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the request for retransmission is a signal from the base station on a downlink shared control channel indicating an uplink resource allocation and including the preamble identifier.

18. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the apparatus is further configured to receive an acknowledgement of the base station having received the message burst, wherein the acknowledgement is a signal from the base station on a downlink shared control channel indicating a downlink resource allocation and including the preamble identifier, and wherein the apparatus is configured to decode the signal and obtain an address indicated by the signal, and then compare the address with the address included by the user equipment in the message burst to determine if the acknowledgement is an acknowledgement of the message burst or instead the acknowledgement of a message burst from another user equipment.

19. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the apparatus is further configured to:
provide for transmission a portion of the message burst using a first narrow frequency range of the shared channel frequency range; and
provide for transmission another portion of the message burst using a second narrow frequency range of the shared channel frequency range different from the first narrow frequency range.

20. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the apparatus is further configured to provide the preamble for transmission in part using a first narrow frequency range of the random access channel frequency range and in part using a second narrow frequency range of the random access channel frequency range different from the first.

21. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the apparatus is further configured to obtain from the one or more messages indicating the acknowledgement a digest of the signature or a signature number, and determine whether the acknowledgment is an acknowledgement of the preamble sent by the user equipment or an acknowledgment of a message from another user equip

Assignees

• Pajukoski Kari
• Tiirola Esa
• Vainikka Markku J
• Korhonen Juha S
• Nokia Technologies Oy

Inventors

• Pajukoski Kari
• Tiirola Esa
• Vainikka Markku J
• Korhonen Juha S

Classifications

• H04W72/23

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

• H04W8/26

  Network addressing or numbering for mobility support · CPC title

• H04W74/0833 Primary

  Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access · CPC title

• H04W56/0085

  detecting a given structure in the signal · CPC title

• H04W72/042

  Electricity · mapped topic