Apparatus and method to enable device-to-device (D2D) discovery in cellular networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9325485-B2
Application number	US-201313756013-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 31, 2013
Priority date	Apr 13, 2012
Publication date	Apr 26, 2016
Grant date	Apr 26, 2016

Abstract

An apparatus and method of allowing user equipment (UE) to transmit information directly with other user equipment, using a device-to-device (D2D) mode is disclosed herein. A D2D UE (dUE 1 ) that wishes so communicate to another UE (dUE 2 ) in D2D mode makes various communications requests to an Evolved Node B (eNB), which can facilitate the connection between dUE 1 and dUE 2 by having the dUE 1 measure the signals from dUE 2 to help establish a D2D connection between the dUE 1 and the dUE 2.

First claim

We claim:

1. User equipment comprising processing circuitry to couple the user equipment to a second user equipment (dUE 2 ) in a device-to-device (D2D) configuration, wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to:
receive control channel information regarding the dUE 2 from an evolved Node B (eNB) for a D2D connection;
measure signal strength information from an uplink control channel transmitted by the dUE 2 ;
transmit the signal strength information to the eNB; and
in response to transmission of the signal strength information, receive from the eNB allocation of a set of resources for D2D use by the UE and the dUE 2 based on the signal strength information, the set of resources comprising a corrected modulation and coding scheme (MCS) at corrected transmission power for D2D use by the UE and dUE 2 in response to the signal strength information indicating a particular MCS to use for D2D use by the UE and dUE 2 , wherein the allocation of the set of resources from the eNB is unreceived in response to the signal strength information failing to indicate a usable MCS for D2D use by the UE and dUE 2 .

2. The user equipment of claim 1 wherein the signal strength information is measured from a channel training signal from the dUE 2 ; and
further wherein the channel training signal is selected from: a Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), a Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI), a Rank Indicator (RI), an uplink sounding signal, or an uplink reference signal.

3. The user equipment of claim 1 wherein the processing circuit is further arranged to:
receive D2D information from the eNB; and
establish the D21) connection with the dUE 2 using the D21) information.

4. The user equipment of claim 3 wherein the D2D information comprises information to allow a D2D connection via a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network to the dUE 2 .

5. The user equipment of claim 3 wherein said D2D information comprises information to allow a D2D connection via WiFi to the dUE 2 .

6. The user equipment of claim 1 wherein the control channel information includes allocation information of a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) of the dUE 2 .

7. A method for coupling a first user equipment (dUE 1 ) to a second user equipment (dUE 2 ) in a device-to-device (D2D) cluster operating within a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell, said method comprising:
receiving a request from the dUE 1 to communicate with the dUE 2 in a D2D cluster;
sending first information to the dUE 1 regarding allocation information for a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) of the dUE 2 ;
receiving second information from the dUE 1 regarding communications between the eNB and the dUE 2 based on the first information;
determining whether the second information indicates a usable modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to use for D2D use by the dUE 1 and dUE 2 ;
allocating a set of resources for D2D use by the dUE 1 and the dUE 2 based on the first and second information the set of resources determined by estimating a corrected MCS and corrected transmission power for D2D use by the dUE 1 and dUE 2 in response to determining that the second information indicates a particular MCS to use for D2D use by the dUE 1 and dUE 2 , and refraining from allocating the set of resources in response to a determination that the second information fails to indicate a usable MCS for D2D use by the dUE 1 and dUE 2 ; and
transmitting information regarding the set of resources to both the dUE 1 and the dUE 2 .

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the method is performed the eNB.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the first information is selected from a Channel Quality Indication information (CQI), a Precoding Matrix Indicator information (PMI), and a Rank Indicator (RI).

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the second information comprises signal strength information between the eNB and the dUE 2 .

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the set of resources comprises a set of LTE resources.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the set of resources comprises a set of WiFi resources.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein sending first information regarding the dUE 2 to the dUE 1 is skipped if the request from the dUE 1 contains the first information regarding the dUE 2 .

14. An evolved Node B (eNB) comprising:
a transceiver; and
processing circuitry adapted to:
receive a request from a first user equipment (dUE 1 ) to communicate with a second user equipment (dUE 2 ) in a device to device (D2D) cluster;
send first information to the dUE 1 regarding allocation information for a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) of the dUE 2 ;
receive second information from the dUE 1 regarding communications between the eNB and the dUE 2 based on the first information;
determine whether the second information indicates a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to use for D2D;
allocate a set of resources for D2D use by the dUE 1 and the dUE 2 based on the second information, the allocation comprising a corrected MCS and corrected transmission power for D2D use by the dUE 1 and dUE 2 in response to a determination that the second information indicates an MCS to use for D2D use by the dUE 1 and dUE 2 , and refrain from allocation of the set of resources and transmission of the information regarding the set of resources in response to a determination that the second information fails to indicate a MCS for D2D use by the dUE 1 and dUE 2 ; and
transmit information regarding the set of resources to both the dUE 1 and the dUE 2 , wherein said information regarding the set of resources enables the dUE 1 and the dUE 2 to send and receive communications in a D2D mode.

15. The evolved node B of claim 14 wherein the information regarding the set of resources allows D2D communication via LTE.

16. The evolved node B of claim 14 wherein the information regarding the set of resources allows D2D communication via WiFi.

17. The user equipment of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to receive from the eNB an indication of whether each of discovery and D2D data communications is to be performed using WiFi.

18. The user equipment of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to receive from the eNB which of infrastructure and ad-hoc mode to use, and WiFi identification (ID) to use, the WiFi ID including a basic service set identifier (BSSID) and a destination address (DA) in infrastructure mode and a group owner ID in ad-hoc mode.

19. The user equipment of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to reduce Win authentication based on the UE passing Long Term Evolution (LTE) authentication.

20. The user equipment of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to receive from the eNB a request for the UE to turn on a WiFi radio and subsequently to receive from the eNB parameters for one of a WiFi discovery and a scanning process.

21. The user equipment of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to receive from the eNB an indication for the UE to be one of an access point and group owner for sending out beacons.

22. The user equipment of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to receive from the eNB an indication of which of passive or active scanning is to be used by the UE for discovery.

23. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an evolved NodeB (eNB) to communicate with user equipment (UE), the one or

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Li Qinghua
• Li Honggang
• Yin Hujun
• Fwu Jong-Kae
• Mukherjee Amitav
• Zhu Yuan
• Chen Xiaogang

Classifications

• H04W72/542

  using measured or perceived quality · CPC title

• H04W72/23

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

• H04W24/02 Primary

  Arrangements for optimising operational condition · CPC title

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• H04W28/0226

  based on location or mobility (handoff or reselection H04W36/00; mobile application services making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02) · CPC title