Configuring a communication with user equipments operating with a different system bandwidth

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9867087-B2
Application number	US-201114348218-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2011
Priority date	Sep 28, 2011
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

A method configures a communication between a base station, a first user equipment adapted to operate with a first system bandwidth and a second user equipment adapted to operate with a second system bandwidth. The first system bandwidth is broader than the second system bandwidth. The base station, the first user equipment and the second user equipment are located within a cellular network system. The method includes providing first common channels or signals within the first system bandwidth and providing second common channels or signals within the second system bandwidth, wherein a part of the first common channels or signals and a part of the second common channels or signals are superpositioned. The method further includes configuring at least one of the common channels or signals of the part of the first common channels or signals to be used by the first user equipment and the second user equipment.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
configuring a communication between a base station, a first user equipment operating with a first system bandwidth and a second user equipment operating with a second system bandwidth, wherein the first system bandwidth is broader than the second system bandwidth and wherein the base station, the first user equipment and the second user equipment are located within a cellular network system, comprising:
providing first common channels or signals within the first system bandwidth;
providing second common channels or signals within the second system bandwidth;
configuring part of the first common channels or signals and part of the second common channels or signals to share at least one common symbol and reduce at least a control channel overhead of the cellular network system, wherein the configured part of the first common channels or signals and the configured part of the second common channels or signals are superpositioned on top of each other on the shared at least one common symbol to be used by the first user equipment and the second user equipment;
configuring at least one of the common channels or signals of the part of the first common channels to be used for the communication by the first user equipment and the second user equipment; and
allowing transmission on the second common channels or signals within a predefined duty cycle, wherein the predefined duty cycle allows transmission of the communication in only a predefined subset of all subframes of the communication.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 , the method further comprising separating the part of the first common channels or signals and the part of the second common channels or signals in time.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 , the method further comprising separating the part of the first common channels or signals and the part of the second common channels or signals in frequency.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 ,
wherein the first common channels or signals and the second common channels or signals each comprise at least one of the group consisting of a physical downlink control channel, a physical hybrid automatic repeat-request indicator channel, a physical control format indication channel, and a physical broadcast channel.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one of the common channels or signals of the part of the first common channels or signals to be used by the first user equipment and the second user equipment is at least one of the group consisting of a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the superpositioning comprises the configured part of the first common channels or signals and the configured part of the second common channels or signals are superpositioned on top of each other in frequency and configured to share common physical resource blocks.

7. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the at least one common symbol is at least one of reference symbols included into a common reference signal or a channel state information reference signal.

8. A base station comprising: at least one processor; and
at least one memory including computer program code, where the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the base station to at least:
configure a communication between the base station, a first user equipment to operate with a first system bandwidth and a second user equipment to operate with a second system bandwidth, wherein the first system bandwidth is broader than the second system bandwidth and wherein the base station, the first user equipment and the second user equipment are located within a cellular network system,
provide first common channels or signals within the first system bandwidth and provide second common channels or signals within the second system bandwidth;
configure part of the first common channels or signals and part of the second common channels or signals to share at least one common symbol and reduce at least a control channel overhead of the cellular network system, wherein the configured part of the first common channels or signals and the configured part of the second common channels or signals are superpositioned on top of each other on the shared at least one common symbol to be used by the first user equipment and the second user equipment;
configure at least one of the common channels or signals of the part of the first common channels or signals to be used for the communication by the first user equipment and the second user equipment; and
allow transmission on the second common channels or signals within a predefined duty cycle, wherein the predefined duty cycle allows transmission of the communication in only a predefined subset of all subframes of the communication.

9. A cellular network system for configuring a communication channel between a base station and a user equipment within the cellular network system, the cellular network system comprising the base station having the at least one processor and the at least one memory performing the functions as set forth in claim 8 .

10. The base station as set forth in claim 8 , wherein the at least one memory including the computer program code is configured with the at least one processor to cause the base station to separate the part of the first common channels or signals and the part of the second common channels or signals in time.

11. The base station as set forth in claim 8 , wherein the at least one memory including the computer program code is configured with the at least one processor to cause the base station to separate the part of the first common channels or signals and the part of the second common channels or signals in frequency.

12. The base station as set forth in claim 8 , wherein the first common channels or signals and the second common channels or signals each comprise at least one of the group consisting of a physical downlink control channel, a physical hybrid automatic repeat-request indicator channel, a physical control format indication channel, and a physical broadcast channel.

13. The base station as set forth in claim 8 , wherein the at least one of the common channels or signals of the part of the first common channels or signals to be used by the first user equipment and the second user equipment is at least one of the group consisting of a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal.

14. The base station as set forth in claim 8 , wherein the superpositioning comprises the configured part of the first common channels or signals and the configured part of the second common channels or signals are superpositioned on top of each other in frequency and configured to share common physical resource blocks.

15. The base station as set forth in claim 8 , wherein the at least one common symbol is at least one of reference symbols included into a common reference signal or a channel state information reference signal.

16. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the first system is a broadband system and wherein the second system is a narrowband system, or vice versa.

Assignees

• Ranta-Aho Karri Markus
• Toskala Antti Anton
• Lunttila Timo Erkki
• Hwang Woonhee
• Nokia Solutions & Networks Oy

Inventors

• Ranta-Aho Karri Markus
• Toskala Antti Anton
• Lunttila Timo Erkki
• Hwang Woonhee

Classifications

• H04L5/0057

  Physical resource allocation for CQI · CPC title

• H04L5/0028

  Variable division (indication of the divided channel H04L5/0092) · CPC title

• H04L5/0064

  Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority · CPC title

• H04W4/005

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L5/0092

  Indication of how the channel is divided · CPC title