Physical broadcast channel (PBCH) coverage enhancements for machine type communications (MTC)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9735942-B2
Application number	US-201414245370-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 4, 2014
Priority date	Apr 5, 2013
Publication date	Aug 15, 2017
Grant date	Aug 15, 2017

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques and apparatus for physical broadcast channel (PBCH) coverage enhancements, for example, for machine type communications (MTC). In aspects, the PBCH coverage enhancements may be applied by non-MTC devices. A method for wireless communications typically performed by a base station (BS) is provided. The method generally includes determining a set of resources for a new physical broadcast channel (PBCH) with enhanced coverage relative to a legacy PBCH and communicating to at least one user equipment (UE) based on the determined set of resources for the new PBCH. In aspects, the new PBCH may be transmitted on a subframe allocated for communicating with MTC devices (MTC subframe).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for wireless communications by a base station (BS), comprising:
transmitting to a user equipment (UE), by the BS, on a first type of physical broadcast channel (PBCH) that has enhanced coverage relative to a second type of PBCH, wherein transmitting on the first type of PBCH comprises transmitting a PBCH and at least one repeated PBCH within a subframe, and wherein the first type of PBCH has a transmission time interval periodicity greater than 80 ms;
transmitting on the second type of PBCH to the UE in the subframe, wherein the second type of PBCH is transmitted at a higher power spectral density (PSD) than a PSD for other downlink signals in the subframe; and
transmitting on the second type of PBCH at a PSD that is not higher than a PSD for the other downlink transmission signals in a second subframe in which the first type of PBCH is not transmitted.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH is transmitted on a subframe allocated for communicating with MTC devices.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH is transmitted only in 11 symbols of subframe 0 in each radio frame.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH is transmitted in subframe 0 and subframe 5 and is rate matched around primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), and the second type of PBCH.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH is punctured by primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), and the second type of PBCH.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH is transmitted in a different frequency location than a center 6 resource blocks (RBs).

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting at least one of primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), or system information blocks (SIB in the subframe at a higher PSD than other downlink transmission signals in the subframe.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) collides with resources allocated to the first type of PBCH.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein:
if EPDCCH collides with the first type of PBCH, resource elements (REs) of at least some of the first type of PBCH are punctured, the first type of PBCH is rate matched around EPDCCH, or EPDCCH uses at least one of a first set of common search space (CSS) resource locations or a first set of UE-specific search space (USS) resource locations, and
if EPDCCH does not collide with the first type of PBCH, EPDCCH uses at least one of a second set of CSS resource locations or a second set of USS resource locations.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first set of CSS resource locations comprises a punctured version of the second set of CSS resource locations.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH is transmitted in the subframe at a higher PSD than a PSD for the other downlink transmission signals in the subframe.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH has a higher density in the subframe than a density for the second type of PBCH in the subframe, wherein the density corresponds to an amount of resources in the subframe used for the first type of PBCH or the second type of PBCH.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the higher density for the first type of PBCH is a result of at least one of a longer transmission time within a subframe for the first type of PBCH than a transmission time within a subframe for the second type of PBCH.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH comprises a narrowband PBCH, and wherein a bandwidth for the narrowband PBCH is one resource block (RB).

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second type of PBCH comprises a repeated PBCH.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the bandwidth for the narrowband PBCH is at a continuous frequency location.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the bandwidth for the narrowband PBCH is frequency hopped.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein a length of the first type of PBCH is different for a first carrier type than for a second carrier type.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein:
in the first carrier type, the first type of PBCH is transmitted in symbols 4 - 14 and is rate matched around cell-specific reference signals (CRS) in the subframe, and
in the second carrier type, the first type of PBCH is transmitted in an entire subframe and is rate matched around CRS every 5 subframes.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH is the same for a first carrier type and a second carrier type.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH is transmitted in the entire subframe and is punctured by at least one of: primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), the second type of PBCH, cell-specific reference signals (CRS), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), or positioning reference signals (PRS).

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH is transmitted in symbols 5 - 14 of the subframe and is rate matched around cell-specific reference signals (CRS) in the subframe.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of PBCH is transmitted in only symbols 4 - 14 of the subframe.

24. The method of claim 15 , wherein the second type of PBCH and the first type of PBCH have the same payload content.

25. The method of claim 15 , wherein the first type of PBCH is transmitted in each symbol in the subframe that is not occupied by the second type of PBCH, primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), or a control channel.

26. The method of claim 15 , wherein the second type of PBCH and the first type of PBCH have different payload content.

27. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first type of PBCH operates according to release 11 or beyond of the long term evolution (LTE) wireless standards; and
the second type of PBCH operates according to release 10 or earlier of the LTE wireless standards.

28. The method of claim 18 , wherein:
the first carrier type operates according to release 11 or earlier of the long term evolution (LTE) wireless standards; and
the second carrier type operates according to release 12 or beyond of the LTE wireless standards.

29. An apparatus for wireless communications by a base station (BS), comprising:
means for transmitting to a user equipment (UE), by the BS, on a first type of physical broadcast channel (PBCH) that has enhanced coverage relative to a second type of PBCH, wherein transmitting on the first type of PBCH comprises transmitting a PBCH and at least one repeated PBCH within a subframe, and wherein the first type of PBCH has a transmission time interval periodicity greater than 80 ms; and
means for transmitting on the second type of PBCH to the UE in the subframe, wherein the second type of PBCH is transmitted at a higher power spectral density (PSD) than a PSD for other downlink signals in the subframe; and
means for transmitting on the second type of PBCH at a PSD that is not higher than a PSD for the other downlink transmission signals in a second subframe in which the first type of PBCH is not transmitted.

30. An apparatus for wireless communi

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Xu Hao
• Chen Wanshi
• Gaal Peter
• Ji Tingfang

Classifications

• H04L5/0053 Primary

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

• H04W72/04

  Wireless resource allocation · CPC title