Radio resource allocation in a narrowband communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9750026-B1
Application number	US-201715424432-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Feb 3, 2017
Priority date	Feb 5, 2016
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses of resource allocation for wireless communication are presented. In an example, a user equipment may contain radio circuitry and processing circuitry such that the user equipment is configured to obtain a set of multiple indices, where each index in the set of multiple indices corresponds to a different uplink resource allocation from a set of uplink resource allocations formed from twelve contiguous subcarriers. In an aspect, the set of uplink resource allocations includes an allocation of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, two allocations of six contiguous subcarriers, four allocations of three contiguous subcarriers, and twelve allocations of a single subcarrier. In a further aspect, the user equipment can receive an index indication corresponding to an index from the set of multiple indices from the base station. Also, the user equipment can transmit data to the base station using the resource allocation corresponding to the received index indication.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A user equipment for communicating with a base station in a narrowband communication system, wherein the user equipment comprises:
radio circuitry and processing circuitry whereby the user equipment is configured to:
obtain a set of multiple indices, each index in the set of multiple indices corresponding to a different uplink resource allocation from a set of uplink resource allocations formed from twelve contiguous subcarriers, the set of uplink resource allocations comprising an allocation of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, two allocations of six contiguous ones of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, four allocations of three contiguous ones of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, and twelve allocations of a single one of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, such that:
the two allocations of six contiguous subcarriers do not overlap with each other and fall within a bandwidth of the twelve contiguous subcarriers,
the four allocations of three contiguous subcarriers do not overlap with each other and fall within the bandwidth of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, and
the twelve allocations of single subcarriers do not overlap with each other and fall within the bandwidth of the twelve contiguous subcarriers;

receive an index indication corresponding to an index from the set of multiple indices from the base station; and
transmit data to the base station using the resource allocation corresponding to the received index indication.

2. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the index indication is the index.

3. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the narrowband communication system is a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) system.

4. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the narrowband communication system is deployed in-band or in a guard band of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system.

5. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein each of the twelve contiguous subcarriers has a 15 kHz bandwidth.

6. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the user equipment is preconfigured with the set of multiple indices, and wherein the user equipment is configured to obtain the set by reading the preconfigured set of multiple indices.

7. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein a narrowband physical uplink shared channel in the narrowband communication system comprises the set of uplink resource allocations.

8. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the user equipment is configured to transmit the data over the narrowband physical uplink shared channel.

9. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the set of multiple indices comprises 19 indices.

10. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the received index indication comprises 5 bits.

11. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the received index indication comprises 6 bits.

12. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the user equipment is configured to receive, where the index indication comprises less than 5 bits, at least one further index indication identifying one or more secondary resource allocations for the user equipment.

13. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the user equipment is configured to receive the index in at least one downlink control information (DCI) message transmitted by the base station.

14. The user equipment of claim 13 , wherein the at least one DCI has an associated DCI format of N0.

15. A method implemented by a user equipment for performing wireless communication with a base station in a narrowband communication system, the method comprising:
obtaining a set of multiple indices, each index in the set of multiple indices corresponding to a different uplink resource allocation from a set of uplink resource allocations formed from twelve contiguous subcarriers, the set of uplink resource allocations comprising an allocation of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, two allocations of six contiguous ones of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, four allocations of three contiguous ones of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, and twelve allocations of a single one of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, such that:
the two allocations of six contiguous subcarriers do not overlap with each other and fall within a bandwidth of the twelve contiguous subcarriers,
the four allocations of three contiguous subcarriers do not overlap with each other and fall within the bandwidth of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, and
the twelve allocations of single subcarriers do not overlap with each other and fall within the bandwidth of the twelve contiguous subcarriers;

receiving an index indication corresponding to an index from the set of multiple indices from the base station; and
transmitting data to the base station using the resource allocation corresponding to the received index indication.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the index indication is received in at least one downlink control information (DCI) message transmitted by the base station.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the at least one DCI has an associated DCI format of N0.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the set of multiple indices comprises 19 indices.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the index indication comprises 5 bits.

20. The method of claim 15 , further comprising receiving, where the index indication comprises less than 5 bits, at least one further index indication indicating one or more secondary resource allocations for the user equipment.

21. The method of claim 15 , wherein the index indication is received in at least one system information block (SIB) transmitted by the base station.

22. The method of claim 15 , wherein the index indication is received semi-statically via radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

23. The method of claim 15 , wherein the narrowband communication system is a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) system.

24. The method of claim 15 , wherein each of the twelve contiguous subcarriers has a 15 kHz bandwidth.

25. The method of claim 15 , wherein the user equipment is preconfigured with the set of multiple indices.

26. The method of claim 15 , wherein a narrowband physical uplink shared channel (NB-PUSCH) in the narrowband communication system comprises the set of uplink resource allocations.

27. A user equipment for communicating with a base station in a narrowband communication system, wherein the user equipment comprises:
radio circuitry and processing circuitry whereby the user equipment is configured to:
receive, from the base station, an index indication corresponding to an index from a set of multiple indices wherein each index in the set of multiple indices corresponding to a different uplink resource allocation from a set of uplink resource allocations formed from twelve contiguous subcarriers, the set of uplink resource allocations comprising an allocation of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, two allocations of six contiguous ones of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, four allocations of three contiguous ones of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, and twelve allocations of a single one of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, such that:
the two allocations of six contiguous subcarriers do not overlap with each other and fall within a bandwidth of the twelve contiguous subcarriers,
the four allocations of three contiguous subcarriers do not overlap with each other and fall within the bandwidth of the twelve contiguous subcarriers, and
the twelve allocations of single subcarr

Assignees

• ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M (publ)

Inventors

• Saxena Vidit
• Bergman Johan
• Blankenship Yufei
• Lin Xingqin

Classifications

• H04W72/23

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

• H04W72/51

  based on terminal or device properties · CPC title

• H04L5/0094

  Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated · CPC title

• H04L5/0039

  Frequency-contiguous, i.e. with no allocation of frequencies for one user or terminal between the frequencies allocated to another · CPC title

• H04W76/27

  Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states · CPC title