Alcatel Lucent

Nokia Technologies Oy

Alcatel-lucent USA Inc.

Nokia of America Corporation

Wsou Investments, LLC

Shin Horng Wong

Matthew Baker

Sigen Ye

Teck H Hu

Seau Sian Lim

Matthew P J Baker

Feng Han

Yu Chen

Nicola Puddle

Qi Jiang

Zheng Liu

Min Zhang

Graham Brend

Sudeep K Palat

David Bhatoolaul

Vikas Dhingra

Fang-Chen Cheng

Mohammad Riaz Khawer

Sarah Boumendil

Huy Thang Pham

Jindong Hou

Jing Zhang

Zhang Min

George Warner

Matthew PJ Baker

Martin Warner

Graham R Brend

A method, computer program, network control node, user equipment and base station are disclosed which allow a wireless communication network to support different types of user equipment which have particular signalling requirements. In particular, low complexity devices that require signals having low transport block sizes and those that require a coverage enhanced mode where messages are repeated are supported. Information regarding their particular capabilities are transmitted to and stored in the network control node which then transmits this information as paging information with any paging request.

Indicating properties of a user equipment to a network control node

The present invention provides a method for data transmission in a machine type communication device terminal, comprising: performing the following when the terminal receives cell common message: A. receiving first indication information from an EPDCCH on a first resource block, the first indication information indicating a second resource block for transmitting the cell common message; B. receiving the cell common message from a PDSCH on the second resource block; performing the following when the terminal receives downlink data: I. receiving second indication information from EPDCCH on a third resource block; II. detecting whether DCI information transmitted to the terminal exists in the second indication information, and if the DCI information transmitted to the terminal exists, II-1. decoding information of a fourth resource block in the DCI information; II-2. receiving the downlink data transmitted from the base station to the terminal from the PDSCH on the fourth resource block.

Methods for data transmission in a machine communication terminal and in a base station

One embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a method for random access in a base station supporting communication with at least one CE-MTC UE. The method comprises: receiving from a user equipment, repetition transmissions of a first message including a random access preamble; repeatedly transmitting to the user equipment a second message including a random access response, RAR, wherein the second message has a characteristic dependent upon a first repetition level. Another embodiment of the present invention also relates to corresponding method for random access in a user equipment. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there are provided corresponding devices.

Methods and devices for random access

A method is provided for a UE to determine the start time of the downlink control channel for M2M communication in LTE systems. The method comprises a UE receiving a parameter set to determine the start time of the (E)PDCCH from the eNB; calculating the start time based on the received parameter set from the eNB; combining/decoding the repetitive (E)PDCCHs; and sending the feedback information to confirm/reject the reception of the (E)PDCCH.

Method for determining start time of a physical downlink control channel

A transmitting device performs a channel assessment in a previous sub-frame in an unlicensed carrier. After a successful channel assessment, the transmitting device starts a data transmission. The transmitting device transmits a control message for indicating the data transmission in (E)PDCCH. The control message may include the starting time of the data transmission and/or at least one transmission characteristic in the previous sub-frame. The transmission device may transmit an initial control message for indicating a potential data transmission being started in the sub-frame in which the initial control message is transmitting. Method and apparatus enable (E)CCA to take place at any time, and data transmission to start earlier than the next sub-frame boundary after a successful completion of (E)CCA, thus improving the data transmission capacity, especially in circumstances when the maximum length of transmission is constrained.

Method and apparatus for supporting a partial sub-frame data transmission in LTE systems

A method is provided for assisting data transmission on a first carrier by indicating a termination point of data transmission in a transmitting device and apparatus thereof, wherein the method comprises the steps of: A. transmitting data on the carrier to a receiving device in a first subframe; and B. transmitting downlink control information to the receiving device; wherein the downlink control information includes a termination point indication for indicating a termination point of the data in the first subframe. The method and apparatus could improve the utilization of subframe and transmission capacity, and enable LTE to satisfy the regulations for unlicensed operation with high spectral efficiency.

Method for assisting data transmission on a first carrier by indicating a termination point of data transmission

A method is provided for determining delay between random access channel and downlink control channel in random access procedures. The method comprises receiving from a base station, by a user equipment, information related to one or more delay(s) between a random access channel and one or more repetition period(s) of a downlink control channel for the user equipment; sending to the base station, by the user equipment, the random access channel transmitted in a repetitive form; receiving, by the user equipment, the one or more repetition period(s) of the downlink control channel, wherein each of the one or more repetition period(s) of the downlink control channel is transmitted according to a corresponding one of the delay(s); and determining, by the user equipment, the one or more delay(s) based at least on the information related to the delay(s).

Method and apparatus for determining delay between random access channel and downlink control channel

The present disclosure provides methods and apparatuses for HARQ retransmission on an unlicensed carrier in an LTE-LAA system. A method in the base station includes: performing a CCA detection on the unlicensed carrier to determine energy on the unlicensed carrier and, at the same time, initiating an HARQ discarding timer for the unlicensed carrier, when the base station and a UE operate on the unlicensed carrier; comparing the determined energy with a predetermined CCA threshold; if the determined energy on the unlicensed carrier is not smaller than the CCA threshold until the HARQ discarding timer is expired, giving up the HARQ retransmission on the unlicensed carrier; and if the energy is detected to be smaller than the CCA threshold before the HARQ discarding timer is expired, continuing the HARQ retransmission on the unlicensed carrier.

Methods and apparatuses for HARQ retransmission on unlicensed carrier in LTE-LAA system

The method includes receiving, at a user equipment, a request-to-send (RTS) signal from a base station in an unlicensed channel, the RTS signal including individual IDs or group IDs of multiple user equipments, the multiple user equipments including the user equipment; and identifying whether the RTS signal includes an individual ID or group ID of the user equipment, wherein the identifying includes sending a clear-to-send (CTS) signal to the base station in a licensed channel or the unlicensed channel to allow the base station to perform data transmission to the user equipment in response to the RTS signal including the individual ID or group ID of the user equipment; and ignoring the RTS signal in response to the RTS signal not including the individual ID or group ID of the user equipment.

Method and apparatus for mitigating hidden node interference

A method of configuring transmissions over a radio bearer between a base station and user equipment of a wireless telecommunication network, a base station, user equipment, a radio network controller and computer program products are disclosed. The method of configuring transmissions over a radio bearer between a base station and user equipment of a wireless telecommunication network comprises the steps of: preconfiguring the user equipment to support transmissions over a plurality of transport channels of the radio bearer, the plurality of transport channels being associated with a communication state of the user equipment, each of the plurality of transport channels being mappable with logical channels of the radio bearer, the logical channels providing information to be transmitted by the transport channels; and remapping the logical channels onto a different one of the plurality of transport channels in response to a message transmitted between the base station and the user equipment, the message indicating the different one of the plurality of transport channels to be used to support the transmissions between the base station and the user equipment. This approach enables the user equipment or base station to select a transport channel to carry the information from the logical channels autonomously of other network nodes within the network, such as, for example, the radio network controller. By avoiding the need to involve other network nodes in the reselection of the transport channel, rapid changes in the transport channel can be made based on knowledge of the current conditions within either the base station or the user equipment. This approach enables fast switching of the transport channel to improve the performance of the network.

Configuring transmissions by remapping the logical channels onto different one of the plurality of transport channels

A wireless communication network that supports low complexity devices is disclosed. In this network the plurality of preamble resources are allocated by a network node. The preambles are divided into sets, a first set of the preambles being for use by user equipment that is not low complexity user equipment; and a second set of the preambles being for use by low complexity user equipment and on occasion indicated by the network node, for use by user equipment that is not low complexity user equipment. Information on the allocation of preamble resources being broadcast to user equipment; and in response to receipt of one of the second set of preambles, signals are transmitted from the network node that are limited to transport blocks of less than a predetermined size.

Communication resource allocation in wireless networks

A method for determining resources to be decoded by the UE to retrieve physical downlink control channels. A method is in a UE or an eNB and comprises the following steps of: i. determining a start position of a unit of resources in one physical resource block pair; ii. determining a gap between two of the units; and iii. determining a set of units, in a given plurality of physical resource block pairs, according to said start position and said gap, as the resources to be decoded. In this way, the eNB and the UE can locate all the resources for the EPDCCH, namely the search space is determined. This aspect allows a balance between the number of blind decoding and eNB scheduling flexibility in the EPDCCH search space.

Method for determining resources of physical downlink control channels

The invention provides the method and apparatus for node and UE to schedule and transmit CTS in a communication network. The method comprises that a node transmits a RTS for indicating a CTS scheduling information to a LTE in an unlicensed band, wherein the scheduling information is used to indicate the LTE to send a CTS in uplink licensed band in response to the RTS. The CTS scheduling information may explicitly include time resource and frequency resource for the UE to transmit the CTS. The CTS scheduling information may implicitly indicate the time and frequency resource for the UE to transmit the CTS. Based on the explicit or implicit schemes of the present application, the scheduling signaling overhead can be reduced and the co-existence problem between LTE-U/LTE-U or between LTE-U/Wi-Fi can be efficiently mitigated.

Method and apparatus for scheduling CTS in a communication network

Methods and apparatuses for use in a low cost machine type communication user equipment, wherein the low cost machine type communication user equipment communicates with a legacy base station, are provided. The method comprises adjusting at least one parameter relating to scheduling such that the legacy base station is to schedule the low cost machine type communication user equipment with a transmission block size less than a predefined size. The method also comprises reporting the adjusted at least one parameter to the legacy base station. With the methods and apparatuses of the present disclosure, it is possible for the low cost machine type communication use equipment to operate in the coverage area of the legacy base station.

Method and apparatus for low cost machine type communication

Aspects provide methods for controlling user equipment operation in a wireless communications network configured to support communication with the user equipment according to a communication mode which utilizes repetition of messaging; computer program products and network nodes operable to perform those methods. One method comprises: determining a modulation and coding regime to be used by the user equipment; identifying a repetition regime to be implemented by the user equipment in conjunction with the modulation and coding regime; and communicating an indication of the determined modulation and coding regime and identified repetition regime to the user equipment. Aspects recognize that when implementing a coverage enhanced region within a network it is possible that fixed repetition levels can be defined for CE-MTC UE. Those fixed repetition levels can be implemented by a network and recognize differences between the CE-MTC UE radio condition. That is to say, the number of repetitions used may correspond to radio condition being experienced at a machine-type communication device: those in poorer coverage regions will be selected to receive a greater number of repetitions than those in a better radio coverage region. The granularity of such repetition levels may subject to a given operator's implementation of a coverage enhanced region. The first aspect recognizes that it is possible to implement varying repetition levels for user equipment operating in the coverage enhanced region supported by a network access node. Those varying repetition levels can be configured at the network access node; for example, an eNodeB.

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Chippenham, United Kingdom

Shin Horng Wong