Flexible HARQ ACK/NACK transmission

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9537615-B2
Application number	US-201214405454-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2012
Priority date	Jun 28, 2012
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

A method including utilizing HARQ process grouping and subframe grouping to carry ACK/NACK transmissions, wherein the HARQ process grouping divides HARQ processes into one or more groups, and the subframe grouping divides a radio frame into one or more groups. The method may further include carrying ACK/NACK transmissions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
utilizing HARQ process grouping and subframe grouping to carry ACK/NACK transmissions, wherein the HARQ process grouping divides HARQ processes into one or more groups and the subframe grouping divides a radio frame into one or more groups;
carrying ACK/NACK transmissions; and
adding a 1-bit indicator to the HARQ process grouping and the subframe grouping to differentiate between the HARQ process grouping and the subframe grouping.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein one of a HARQ process group identification and a subframe group identification is transmitted when carrying ACK/NACK.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a downlink assignment index indicates how to carry the ACK/NACK in case of two codewords transmission of one physical downlink shared channel.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
determining one of HARQ process grouping and subframe grouping to use.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the determining comprises determining which grouping method to use through radio resource control signaling configured by a Node B.

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the determining comprises selecting one of HARQ process grouping and subframe grouping to use.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a grouping indicator is transmitted when carrying ACK/NACK transmissions.

8. An apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory including computer program code,
the at least one memory and the computer program code configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to
utilize HARQ process grouping and subframe grouping to carry ACK/NACK transmissions, wherein the HARQ process grouping divides HARQ processes into one or more groups, and the subframe grouping divides a radio frame into one or more groups;
carry ACK/NACK transmissions; and
add a 1-bit indicator to the HARQ process grouping and the subframe grouping to differentiate between the HARQ process grouping and the subframe grouping.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein one of a HARQ process group identification and a subframe group identification is transmitted when carrying ACK/NACK.

10. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein a downlink assignment index indicates how to carry the ACK/NACK in case of two codewords transmission of one physical downlink shared channel.

11. The apparatus according to claim 8 , the at least one memory and the computer program code configured, with the at least one processor, to further cause the apparatus to:
determine one of HARQ process grouping and subframe grouping to use.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the apparatus is caused to determine which grouping method to use through radio resource control signaling configured by a Node B.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the apparatus is caused to select one of HARQ process grouping and subframe grouping to use.

14. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein a grouping indicator is transmitted when carrying ACK/NACK transmissions.

15. An apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory including computer program code,
the at least one memory and the computer program code configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to
receive ACK/NACK transmissions from user equipment, wherein the HARQ process grouping divides HARQ processes into one or more groups, the subframe grouping divides a radio frame into one or more groups, and one of a HARQ process group identification and a subframe group identification is transmitted when carrying ACK/NACK transmissions; and
distinguish between HARQ process grouping and subframe grouping at least in part based on a 1-bit indicator of the HARQ process grouping and the subframe grouping.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15 , the at least one memory and the computer program code configured, with the at least one processor, to further cause the apparatus to
configure the user equipment to utilize HARQ process grouping or subframe grouping, through radio resource control signaling.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein the ACK/NACK transmissions can apply to device to device communication.

18. The apparatus according to claim 15 , the at least one memory and the computer program code configured, with the at least one processor, to further cause the apparatus to
receive a grouping indicator from the user equipment.

19. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein the apparatus is caused to
use blind decoding to distinguish between HARQ process grouping and subframe grouping.

20. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein the apparatus is caused to
distinguish between HARQ process grouping and subframe grouping also at least in part based on one of the HARQ process group identification and the subframe group identification received from the user equipment.

Assignees

• Zhu Jianchi
• Zhang Zhi
• Lei Haipeng
• Shu Kodo
• Nokia Corp

Inventors

• Zhu Jianchi
• Zhang Zhi
• Lei Haipeng
• Shu Kodo

Classifications

• H04L1/1812

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

• H04L1/1864

  ARQ related signaling (H04L1/1607 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L1/1822 Primary

  involving configuration of automatic repeat request [ARQ] with parallel processes · CPC title

• H04L1/1893 Primary

  Physical mapping arrangements (physical resource mapping in general H04L5/00) · CPC title