HK1247745B - Wireless terinals, nodes of wireless communication networks, and method of operating the same - Google Patents

Description

Wireless terminal, node of wireless communication network, and method of operating the same

Technical Field

[0014] Embodiments disclosed herein may be directed generally to wireless communications, and more particularly, to a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) for wireless communications and related wireless terminals and wireless communication network nodes.

Background Art

The Long Term Evolution (LTE) specification has been standardized to support component carrier (CC) bandwidths up to 20 MHz (which may be the maximum LTE Rel-8 carrier bandwidth). Accordingly, LTE operation with bandwidths wider than 20 MHz may be possible and may appear as multiple LTE carriers to an LTE terminal.

A straightforward way to provide this type of operation might be through carrier aggregation (CA). CA means that an LTE Rel-10 terminal can receive multiple component carriers (CCs), each of which has (or at least has the potential to have) the same structure as a Rel-8 carrier. An example of carrier aggregation (CA) is shown in Figure 1.

The LTE standard supports up to five aggregated carriers, each of which is restricted in the RF specification to have one of six bandwidths: 6, 15, 25, 50, 75, or 100 resource blocks (RBs) (corresponding to 1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz, and 20 MHz, respectively).

The number of aggregated component carriers (CCs) and the bandwidth of each individual CC can be different for the uplink and downlink (generally referred to as wireless communication links, communication links, or simply links). A symmetric configuration refers to the case where the number of CCs in the downlink and uplink is the same, while an asymmetric configuration refers to the case where the number of CCs in the downlink and uplink is different. The number of CCs configured in the network can be different from the number of CCs seen by the terminal. For example, a terminal may support and/or be configured with more downlink CCs than uplink CCs, even if the network provides the same number of uplink CCs and downlink CCs.

During initial access, a terminal with LTE CA capabilities can behave similarly to a terminal without CA capabilities. Upon successful connection to the network, the terminal can be configured with additional CCs in both the UL and DL (depending on its capabilities and the network). Configuration can be based on Radio Resource Control (RRC). Due to the heavy signaling and relatively slow RRC signaling, it is envisioned that a terminal may be configured with multiple CCs, even if not all are currently in use. If a terminal is activated on multiple CCs, this implies that it must monitor all downlink CCs for the PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) and PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel). This operation may require wider receiver bandwidth, higher sampling rates, etc., resulting in increased power consumption.

In carrier aggregation (CA), a terminal is configured with a primary component carrier (CC) (or cell or serving cell), which is called a primary cell or PCell. The PCell can be particularly important, for example, because control signaling can be signaled on this cell and/or because the UE can perform radio quality monitoring on the PCell. As described above, CA-capable terminals can also be configured with additional component carriers (or cells or serving cells), which are called secondary cells (SCells).

The terms terminal, wireless terminal, UE (User Equipment) and user equipment node are used interchangeably throughout this document.

In LTE, the eNodeB (also known as the base station) and the UE use Medium Access (MAC) Control Elements (CEs) to exchange information such as buffer status reports and power headroom reports. A comprehensive list of MAC CEs is provided in Section 6.1.3 of 3GPP TS 36.321 v12.3.0 (2014-09), "LTE; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol specification." Furthermore, each MAC CE is identified by an LCID (Logical Channel Identity), which serves as a MAC CE identifier, enabling the receiver to correctly interpret the MAC CE. However, with existing LTE specifications, the number of component carriers is limited.

Summary of the Invention

According to some embodiments of the inventive concepts, a method of operating a wireless terminal in communication with a wireless communication network may include configuring a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, and when configured with the first set of component carriers, a first media access control (MAC) control element (CE) may be delivered. The first MAC CE may include a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers. A second set of component carriers may be configured for the communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, wherein the first set of component carriers is different from the second set of component carriers. When configured with the second set of component carriers, a second MAC CE may be delivered. The second MAC CE may include a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and the first bitmap size of the first bitmap may be different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

According to some other embodiments of the inventive concepts, a method of operating a node of a wireless communication network may include configuring a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the node of the communication network and a wireless terminal. When configured with the first set of component carriers for the communication link, a first MAC CE may be communicated over the communication link, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers. A second set of component carriers may be configured for the communication link between the node of the communication network and the wireless terminal, and when configured with the second set of component carriers, a second MAC CE may be communicated over the communication link. The second MAC CE may include a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and the first bitmap size of the first bitmap may be different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

According to still other embodiments of the inventive concept, a wireless terminal may include a transceiver configured to provide radio communication with a wireless communication network over a radio interface and a processor coupled to the transceiver. The processor may be configured to configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, and to communicate a first MAC CE via the transceiver when configured with the first set of component carriers. The first MAC CE may include a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers. The processor may be further configured to configure a second set of component carriers for the communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, and to communicate a second MAC CE via the transceiver when configured with the second set of component carriers. The first set of component carriers may be different from the second set of component carriers, and the second MAC CE may include a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and the first bitmap size of the first bitmap may be different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

According to yet other embodiments of the inventive concept, a wireless terminal may be adapted to: configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and a communication network; and transmit a first MAC CE when configured with the first set of component carriers. The first MAC CE may include a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers. The wireless terminal may be further adapted to: configure a second set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network; and transmit a second MAC CE when configured with the second set of component carriers. The first set of component carriers may be different from the second set of component carriers, the second MAC CE may include a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and the first bitmap size of the first bitmap may be different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

According to some further embodiments of the inventive concept, a node of a wireless communication network may include a transceiver configured to provide communication with one or more wireless terminals over a radio interface and a processor coupled to the transceiver. The processor may be configured to: configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the node of the communication network and the wireless terminal; and transmit a first MAC CE on the communication link when the first set of component carriers are configured for the communication link. The first MAC CE may include a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein the bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers. The processor may be further configured to: configure a second set of component carriers for the communication link between the node of the communication network and the wireless terminal; and transmit a second MAC CE on the communication link when the second set of component carriers are configured. The second MAC CE may include a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein the bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers. In addition, the first bitmap size of the first bitmap may be different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

According to yet further embodiments of the inventive concept, a node of a wireless communication network may be adapted to configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the node of the communication network and a wireless terminal. The node may be adapted to: when configured with the first set of component carriers for the communication link, transmit a first MAC CE on the communication link, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers. The node may also be adapted to: configure a second set of component carriers for the communication link between the node of the communication network and the wireless terminal; and transmit a second MAC CE on the communication link when configured with the second set of component carriers. The second MAC CE may include a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and the first bitmap size of the first bitmap may be different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

By providing media access control elements (MAC CEs) with bitmaps of varying sizes, control signaling efficiency can be improved while supporting the dynamic configuration of different sets of component carriers for wireless terminals. For example, the bitmap size of the MAC CEs communicated between the wireless terminal and the network node can vary depending on the specific component carriers configured for the wireless terminal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate certain non-limiting embodiments of the inventive concept, wherein the drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the present disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application. In the drawings:

FIG1 is a diagram illustrating carrier aggregation with an aggregated bandwidth of 100 MHz;

2A is a table showing values of a logical channel identifier (LCID) of an uplink shared channel (UL-SCH) obtained from Table 6.2.1-2 (2014-09) of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0;

2B is a table showing values of a logical channel identifier (LCID) of a downlink shared channel (DL-SCH) obtained from Table 6.2.1-1 (2014-09) of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0;

FIG2C is a table showing power headroom levels of a power headroom report (PHR) obtained from Table 6.1.3.6-1 (2014-09) of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0;

FIG3 is a table showing an extended power headroom report (PHR) medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) taken from Table 6.1.3.6a-2 of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0;

FIG4 is a table illustrating an extended power headroom report (PHR) medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) for 32 cells according to some embodiments of the inventive concept;

FIG5 is a table showing nominal UE transmit power levels for an extended power headroom report (PHR) taken from Table 6.1.3.6a-1 (2014-09) of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0;

FIG6 is a table showing activation/deactivation medium access control (MAC) control elements (CEs) obtained from Table 6.1.3.8-1 (2014-09) of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0;

FIG7 is a table illustrating activation/deactivation medium access control (MAC) control elements (CEs) for 32 cells according to some embodiments of the inventive concepts;

FIG8 is a table illustrating an extended power headroom report (PHR) medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) according to some embodiments of the inventive concept;

FIG9 is a table showing nominal UE transmit power levels for an extended power headroom report (PHR) taken from Table 6.1.3.6a-1 (2014-09) of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0;

FIG10 is a table illustrating activation/deactivation of a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) according to some embodiments of the inventive concept;

FIG11 is a block diagram illustrating elements in a radio access network (RAN) in communication with a wireless terminal (UE) and with a core network node according to some embodiments of the inventive concepts;

FIG12 is a block diagram illustrating the base station of FIG11 according to some embodiments of the inventive concept;

FIG13 is a block diagram illustrating the wireless terminal (UE) of FIG11 according to some embodiments of the inventive concept;

FIG14 is a block diagram illustrating the core network node of FIG11 according to some embodiments of the inventive concepts;

15A , 15B, 15C, 16, 17 and 18 are flow charts illustrating the operation of a terminal/node according to some embodiments of the inventive concept;

19A , 19B and 19C are flow charts illustrating the operation of a wireless terminal (UE) according to some embodiments of the inventive concept;

FIG20 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a base station (eNB) according to some embodiments of the inventive concept; and

21A and 21B are tables illustrating medium access control (MAC) control elements (CEs) according to some embodiments of the inventive concept.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventive concept will now be described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show examples of embodiments of the inventive concept. However, the inventive concept can be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the inventive concept to those skilled in the art. It should also be noted that these embodiments are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be implicitly assumed to be present/used in another embodiment.

For purposes of illustration and explanation only, these and other embodiments of the inventive concepts are described herein in the context of operating in a RAN (Radio Access Network) communicating with wireless terminals (also referred to as UEs) over radio communication channels. However, it will be understood that the inventive concepts are not limited to such embodiments and may generally be implemented in any type of communication network. As used herein, a legacy or non-legacy wireless terminal (also referred to as a UE, user equipment node, mobile terminal, wireless device, etc.) can include any device that receives data from a communication network and/or transmits data to a communication network, and may include, but is not limited to, a mobile phone ("cell phone"), a laptop/portable computer, a pocket computer, a handheld computer, an M2M device, an IoT (Internet of Things) device, and/or a desktop computer.

It is noted that although terminology from 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) LTE (Long Term Evolution) has been used in this disclosure to provide example embodiments of the inventive concepts, this should not be seen as limiting the scope of the inventive concepts to only the aforementioned systems. Other wireless systems, including WCDMA, WiMAX, UMB, and GSM, may also benefit from adopting the ideas/concepts encompassed within this disclosure.

It is also noted that terms such as eNodeB (also referred to as base station, eNB, etc.) and UE (also referred to as wireless terminal, mobile terminal, etc.) should be considered non-limiting.

FIG11 is a block diagram illustrating a radio access network (RAN) according to some embodiments of the present inventive concept. As shown, communication between a base station and one or more core network nodes (e.g., a mobility management entity (MME) or a serving GPRS support node (SGSN)) can be provided using a corresponding S1 interface. Each base station (BS) can communicate over a radio interface (including uplink and downlink) with corresponding wireless terminals (UE) in a corresponding cell or cells supported by the base station. As an example, base station BS-1 is shown communicating with wireless terminals UE-1 and UE-2, base station BS-2 is shown communicating with wireless terminals UE-3 and UE-4, and base station BS-n is shown communicating with wireless terminals UE-5 and UE-6.

Figure 12 is a block diagram illustrating elements of the base station BS of Figure 11 . As shown, the base station BS may include transceiver circuitry 201 (also referred to as a transceiver or radio interface or communication interface) configured to provide radio communications with a plurality of wireless terminals, network interface circuitry 205 (also referred to as a network interface) configured to provide communications with other base stations of the RAN (e.g., over an X2 interface), processor circuitry 203 (also referred to as a processor) coupled to the transceiver circuitry and the network interface circuitry, and memory circuitry 207 coupled to the processor circuitry. Memory circuitry 207 may include computer-readable program code that, when executed by processor circuitry 203, causes the processor circuitry to perform operations according to the embodiments disclosed herein. According to other embodiments, processor circuitry 203 may be defined as including memory, such that the memory circuitry is not provided separately.

FIG13 is a block diagram illustrating elements of the wireless terminal (UE) of FIG11 . As shown, the wireless terminal (UE) may include transceiver circuitry 301 (also referred to as a transceiver) including a transmitter and a receiver configured to provide radio communication with a base station (BS), processor circuitry 303 (also referred to as a processor) coupled to the transceiver circuitry, and memory circuitry 307 coupled to the processor circuitry. Memory circuitry 307 may include computer-readable program code that, when executed by processor circuitry 303, causes the processor circuitry to perform operations according to the embodiments disclosed herein. According to other embodiments, processor circuitry 303 may be defined as including memory, such that the memory circuitry is not provided separately.

Figure 14 is a block diagram illustrating elements of the core network node (e.g., MME and/or SGSN) of Figure 11 . As shown, the core network node may include network interface circuitry 401 (also referred to as a network interface or communication interface) configured to provide communication with a base station (BS) of a RAN (e.g., over an S1 interface), processor circuitry 403 (also referred to as a processor) coupled to the network interface circuitry, and memory circuitry 407 coupled to the processor circuitry. Memory circuitry 407 may include computer-readable program code that, when executed by processor circuitry 403, causes the processor circuitry to perform operations according to the embodiments disclosed herein. According to other embodiments, processor circuitry 403 may be defined as including memory, such that the memory circuitry is not provided separately.

In LTE carrier aggregation (CA), the aggregation of a PCell and up to four SCells (i.e., a total of five cells) is currently supported. However, many MAC CEs used in CA may be able to indicate up to seven SCell indices.

As throughput requirements increase in LTE systems, it may be beneficial to support aggregation of more than five cells. However, the MAC specification is not yet designed to support more than five cells, or in some cases more than seven cells. For example, it may not be possible to activate cells with cell indices higher than index 7. Therefore, the MAC specification may be a bottleneck for potential throughput.

According to some embodiments of the inventive concept, the MAC CE may be extended to support cell indices higher than 7 to provide a signaling efficient and backward compatible way of extending support for the number of carriers in the MAC specification.

According to some embodiments of the inventive concept, multiple versions of the MAC CE may support different numbers of carriers.

According to some embodiments, a MAC CE may be defined in different versions, where the different versions support different numbers of carriers. For example, two different versions of an activation/deactivation MAC CE may be defined, where the first version supports fewer serving cells (e.g., up to 7 or 8 cells), and the second version supports more serving cells (e.g., up to 31 or 32 cells). In one alternative of these embodiments, the different versions of the MAC CE may have the same logical channel identifier (LCID). In another alternative of these embodiments, the different versions of the MAC CE may have different LCIDs.

The version of the MAC CE that the transmitter chooses to send will be discussed below.

Although the following disclosure may discuss embodiments in which a MAC CE is transmitted between a UE and an eNB (or a network), it should be appreciated that other embodiments may transmit a MAC CE between any type of node in a network (e.g., between two UEs in the case of device-to-device communication). However, for the sake of brevity, readability, and/or clarity, transmitting a MAC CE between a UE and a network may be discussed as an example, without discussing transmitting such a MAC CE between other nodes in the network.

The selection can be based on network configuration.

The network may configure the version of the MAC CE to be applied (eg, the network may indicate to the terminal which version of the MAC CE to apply).

The transmitter (e.g., UE or network base station) may then select which version of MAC CE to transmit based on what the network has configured the UE to use (send and receive). In other words, if the network has configured the UE to use a first version of MAC CE, the UE will select the first version, and the network may also send the first version of MAC CE to the UE because the UE expects the first version.

The MAC CE version may be configured using broadcast signaling (e.g., via a System Information Block (SIB)), which may have the advantage that all terminals (that support this feature) will apply the same version of the MAC CE, without the need for per-UE signaling (which may incur unnecessary signaling overhead). According to other embodiments, the MAC CE version may be configured using dedicated signaling, thereby allowing the network to configure different UEs to apply different versions of the MAC CE.

The selection may be based on the number of configured carriers.

Which version of MAC CE to use may be determined based on the number of carriers used in communications between the UE and the network. If the UE and the network communicate using fewer than N carriers, one version of MAC CE may be applied, whereas if N or more carriers are used, another version of MAC CE may be applied, where N is a threshold number of carriers.

In an alternative to this selection scheme, which version of MAC CE to use can be determined based on the index of the cell with the highest index configured for the UE. If all cells configured for the UE have indices lower than N, one version of MAC CE can be applied, otherwise another version of MAC CE can be applied.

According to some embodiments, for example, if fewer than 8 carriers are used, a MAC CE version that can contain information/indications/etc. of approximately up to 8 (or 7) carriers (i.e., a "non-extended MAC CE version") may be selected. If more than 8 carriers are configured, a MAC CE version that can contain information/indications/etc. of approximately up to 32 (or 31) carriers (i.e., an "extended MAC CE version") may be selected. This selection mechanism can be generalized so that multiple levels are used:

• If 1 to N ₁ carriers are used, the first MAC CE version applies;

• If N ₁ +1 to N ₂ carriers are used, the second MAC CE version applies;

• If N ₂ +1 to N ₃ carriers are used, the third MAC CE version applies;

• …

• If N _n-1 +1 to N _n carriers are used, the nth MAC CE version applies.

Both the network and the UE are aware of the number of carriers (or cells) configured for the UE and the carrier index. Accordingly, there may be no need for explicit coordination (eg, signaling) to determine which MAC CE version should be used.

Examples of multiple versions of the MAC CE depending on the configured number of carriers of the terminal are discussed below.

The following will discuss how to select the MAC CE version based on the number of carriers (or cells or serving cells) configured for the UE and how to use two different versions of MAC CE. The example shows how this can be implemented in the LTE MAC specification (TS 36.321 V12.3.0).

An extended power headroom report MAC CE is discussed in accordance with some embodiments.

According to some embodiments discussed below, the UE may apply one version of the extended power headroom report MAC control element if the UE is not configured with a cell with a ServCellIndex or SCellIndex (also known as secondary cell index, SCell index or serving cell index) higher than 7, and another version otherwise.

The Extended Power Headroom Report (PHR) MAC Control Element (CE) is identified by a MAC PDU (Protocol Data Unit) subheader with an LCID (Logical Channel Identifier) as specified in the table of FIG2A (Table 6.2.1-2 of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0). The Extended PHR MAC CE may have a variable size and may be defined as shown in the table of FIG3 (Figure 6.1.3.6a-2 of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0) and FIG4.

As shown in FIG3 , the first version of the PHR MAC CE may include an 8-bit (1 octet) bitmap (also referred to as the C field) containing multiple C bits to support one primary component carrier and up to seven configured secondary component carriers (with secondary component carrier indices 1 through 7). Because the primary component carrier must always be configured and activated, and each PHR MAC CE will contain a Type 1 report for the primary component carrier, the first bit of the bitmap may be reserved (R). Each C bit (e.g., _C1 through _C7 ) corresponds to a possible component carrier index for the corresponding secondary component carrier (e.g., _C1 for the second component carrier identified by index 1, _C2 for the secondary component carrier identified by index 2, ..., _C7 for the secondary component carrier identified by index 7). The first version of the PHR MAC CE may be used as long as no configured secondary component carrier has a component carrier index greater than 7. According to some embodiments, secondary component carriers may be configured with non-contiguous secondary component carrier indices. For example, three secondary component carriers with indices 1, 3, and 5 may be configured for a wireless terminal such that C bits _C2 , _C4 , _C6 , and _C7 are 0 (for unconfigured secondary component carriers), such that each of C bits _C1 , _C3 , and _C5 is 0 if power headroom is not reported for the secondary component carrier, or is 1 if power headroom is reported for the secondary component carrier.

As shown in Figure 4, the second version of the PHR MAC CE may contain a 32-bit (4 octets) bitmap (also referred to as the C field) to support one primary component carrier and up to 31 configured secondary component carriers (with secondary component carrier indices 1 to 31). Because the primary component carrier must always be configured and activated, and every PHR MAC CE will contain a Type 1 report for the primary component carrier, the first bit of the bitmap may be reserved (R). Each C bit (e.g., _C1 to _C31 ) corresponds to a possible component carrier index for the corresponding secondary component carrier (e.g., _C1 for the second component carrier identified by index 1, _C2 for the secondary component carrier identified by index 2, ..., _C31 for the secondary component carrier identified by index 31).

The second version of the PHR MAC CE may be used whenever at least one secondary component carrier has a component carrier index greater than 7. According to some embodiments, secondary component carriers may be configured with non-contiguous secondary component carrier indices. For example, a wireless terminal may be configured with three secondary component carriers having indices 1, 3, and 13, such that C bits C ₂ , C ₄ -C ₁₂ , and C ₁₄ -C ₃₁ are 0 (for unconfigured secondary component carriers), such that each of C bits C ₁ , C ₃ , and C ₁₃ is 0 if power headroom is not reported for the secondary component carrier, or is 1 if power headroom is reported for the secondary component carrier.

When the highest secondary component carrier index of the configured secondary component carriers exceeds a threshold (e.g., the highest secondary component carrier index of the configured secondary component carriers is greater than 7), by using only the second version of the PHR MAC CE of FIG. 4 , a smaller PHR MAC CE can be used when the highest configured component carrier index does not exceed the threshold, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

If the UE is configured with at least one cell having a ServCellIndex greater than 7, the definition in Figure 4 may/will be used. Otherwise (if the UE is not configured with at least one cell having a ServCellIndex greater than 7), the definition in Figure 3 may/will be used. When reporting Type 2 PH, the octet indicating the presence of PH per SCell is first followed by an octet with the Type 2 PH field, followed by an octet with the associated _PCMAX,c field (if reported). This is then followed in ascending order by an octet with the Type 1 PH field and the associated _PCMAX,c field (if reported) for each SCell and PCell indicated in the bitmap, based on the ServCellIndex [3GPP TS 36.331: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial RadioAccess (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification"].

The extended PHR MAC control element may be defined as follows:

-C _i : This field indicates the presence of a PH field for the SCell with SCellIndex i as specified in [3GPP TS 36.331: “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification”]. The _Ci field is set to “1” to indicate that the PH field for the SCell with SCellIndex i is reported. The _Ci field is set to “0” to indicate that the PH field for the SCell with SCellIndex i is not reported;

-R: reserved bit, set to "0";

-V: This field indicates whether the PH value is based on a real transmission or a reference format. For Type 1 PH, V=0 indicates a real transmission on PUSCH, and V=1 indicates the use of the PUSCH reference format. For Type 2 PH, V=0 indicates a real transmission on PUCCH, and V=1 indicates the use of the PUCCH reference format. Furthermore, for both Type 1 and Type 2 PH, V=0 indicates the presence of an octet with the associated _PCMAX,c field, while V=1 indicates the omission of an octet with the associated _PCMAX,c field;

- Power Headroom (PH): This field indicates the power headroom level. The length of the field is 6 bits. The reported PH and the corresponding power headroom level are shown in the table in Figure 2C (Table 6.1.3.6-1 of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0) (the corresponding measured value (in dB) can be found in subclause 9.1.8.4 of 3GPP TS 36.133: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Requirements for support of radio resource management");

-P: This field indicates whether the UE applies power backoff due to power management (as allowed by P-MPRc [3GPP TS36.101: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception"]). If power backoff due to power management has not been applied, the UE shall set P=1 if the corresponding _PCMAX,c field would have had a different value;

- _PCMAX,c : If present, this field indicates the _PCMAX,c used to calculate the previous PH field or [3GPPTR 36.213: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); PhysicalLayer Procedures"]. The reported _PCMAX,c and the corresponding nominal UE transmit power level are shown in Figure 5 (Table 6.1.3.6a-1 of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0) (the corresponding measured value (in dBm) can be found in subclause 9.6.1 of 3GPP TS 36.133: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Requirements for support of radio resource management").

FIG5 (Table 6.1.3.6a-1 of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0) is a table showing nominal UE transmit power levels for extended PHR.

In the embodiments discussed below, two activation/deactivation MAC control element versions may be defined: one version may be provided for the case when the UE does not have a cell configured with a ServCellIndex (also known as a secondary component carrier index or SCellIndex) higher than 7, and the other version may be provided otherwise.

The Activation/Deactivation MAC Control element is identified by a MAC PDU subheader with an LCID as specified in the table of Figure 2B (Table 6.2.1-1 of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0 (2014-09)). It has a fixed size and consists of a single octet with 7 C fields and 1 R field. The Activation/Deactivation MAC Control element is discussed below with respect to the first version shown in Figure 6 (Table 6.1.3.8-1 of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0 (2014-09)) and the second version shown in Figure 7. If the UE is configured with at least one cell having a ServCellIndex greater than 7, the definition in Figure 7 may/will be used. Otherwise, the definition in Figure 6 may/will be used.

As shown in FIG6 , the first version of the Activation/Deactivation MAC CE may contain an 8-bit (1 octet) bitmap (also referred to as the C field) to support one primary component carrier and up to seven configured secondary component carriers (with secondary component carrier indices 1 to 7). Because the primary component carrier must always be configured and activated, the first bit of the bitmap may be a reserved R. Each C bit (e.g., _C1 to _C7 ) corresponds to a possible component carrier index for the corresponding secondary component carrier (e.g., _C1 for the second component carrier identified by index 1, _C2 for the secondary component carrier identified by index 2, ..., _C7 for the secondary component carrier identified by index 7). The first version of the Activation/Deactivation MAC CE may be used as long as no configured secondary component carrier has a component carrier index greater than 7. According to some embodiments, secondary component carriers may be configured with non-contiguous secondary component carrier indices. For example, three secondary component carriers with indices 1, 3, and 5 may be configured for a wireless terminal such that C bits _C2 , _C4 , _C6 , and _C7 are 0 (for unconfigured secondary component carriers), such that each of C bits _C1 , _C3 , and _C5 is 0 if the corresponding secondary component carrier is to be deactivated, or is 1 if the secondary component carrier is to be activated.

As shown in FIG7 , the second version of the Activation/Deactivation MAC CE may contain a 32-bit (4 octets) bitmap (also referred to as the C field) to support one primary component carrier and up to 31 configured secondary component carriers (with secondary component carrier indices 1 to 31). Because the primary component carrier must always be configured and activated, the first bit of the bitmap may be a reserved R. Each C bit (e.g., _C1 to _C31 ) corresponds to a possible component carrier index for the corresponding secondary component carrier (e.g., _C1 for the secondary component carrier identified by index 1, _C2 for the secondary component carrier identified by index 2, ..., _C31 for the secondary component carrier identified by index 31). The second version of the Activation/Deactivation MAC CE may be used whenever at least one secondary component carrier has a component carrier index greater than 7. According to some embodiments, secondary component carriers may be configured with non-contiguous secondary component carrier indices. For example, three secondary component carriers with indices 1, 3, and 13 may be configured for a wireless terminal such that C bits C ₂ , C ₄ -C ₁₂ , and C ₁₄ -C ₃₁ are 0 (for unconfigured secondary component carriers) and such that each of the C bits C ₁ , C ₃ , and C ₁₃ is 0 if the secondary component carrier is to be deactivated, or is 1 if the secondary component carrier is to be activated.

When the highest secondary component carrier index of the configured secondary component carriers exceeds a threshold (e.g., the highest secondary component carrier index of the configured secondary component carriers is greater than 7), by using only the second version of the activation/deactivation MAC CE of FIG. 7 , a smaller activation/deactivation MAC CE can be used when the highest configured component carrier index does not exceed the threshold, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

Definitions of the elements of Figures 6 and 7 are provided below:

-C _i : If there is an SCell configured with SCellIndex i as specified in [3GPP TS 36.331: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification"], this field indicates the activation/deactivation status of the SCell with SCellIndex i. Otherwise, the UE shall ignore the C _i field. The C _i field is set to "1" to indicate that the SCell with SCellIndex i is to be activated. The _{C i} field is set to "0" to indicate that the SCell with SCellIndex i is to be deactivated.

-R: Reserved bit, set to "0".

According to some other embodiments, the same MAC CE (or, if the terminology from the embodiments discussed above should be used, "MAC CE version") applies regardless of the number of carriers used/signaled/indicated. Therefore, the same LCID may also be used. However, the size of the MAC CE may vary based on the number of carriers, or more precisely, the number of bits used to indicate the cell (and thus, potentially the number of octets) may be dynamically changed based on the number of carriers used.

This can be achieved by changing the number of octets used to refer to the serving cell in the MAC CE (i.e., bitmap or C field). For example, if all serving cells configured for the UE have indices lower than 7 (or 8), only one octet is required, but if the UE is configured with at least one cell with an index higher than 7 but lower than 15, two octets are required. More generally, the number of octets used will be ceiling((index+1)/8), where index is the highest serving cell index (or secondary cell index) configured for the UE. And, ceiling(x) is the function that provides the closest highest integer value of x. (Note that if the lowest index is 1, the "+1" in the formula may not be needed.)

The difference between this embodiment and the embodiment with a selection mechanism based on the configured number of carriers discussed above is that with this embodiment, the number of bits used to indicate the carrier can be reduced and/or kept to a minimum. For example, consider the case when a UE is configured with a serving cell with index 9. According to this embodiment, only two octets will be used to indicate the cell. In the embodiment with a selection mechanism based on the configured number of carriers described above, the UE will apply an extended MAC CE version that can use 4 octets to indicate the cell. Therefore, this embodiment may be more signaling efficient.

According to some embodiments of the inventive concept, a MAC CE may have a dynamic size, where the size depends on the number of carriers configured for the terminal.

In the embodiments discussed below, a MAC CE may be used in which the number of C fields (a field used to indicate an SCell index) is changed according to the highest cell index configured for the UE, depending on the number of serving cells used.

The Extended Power Headroom Report (PHR) MAC control element is identified by a MAC PDU subheader with an LCID as specified in Figure 2A . It has a variable size and is defined in Figure 3 . When reporting Type 2 PH, it first contains an octet with the Type 2 PH field, followed by an octet with the associated _PCMAX,c field (if reported), following the octet indicating the presence of PH per SCell. The UE shall include enough octets to indicate the presence of PH per SCell to indicate the configured SCell with the highest index. This is then followed in ascending order by an octet with the Type 1 PH field and the associated PCMAX,c field (if reported) for each SCell indicated in the bitmap and for the PCell, based on the ServCellIndex [3GPP TS 36.331: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource _{Control (RRC} ); Protocol specification"].

The extended PHR MAC control element is defined as follows:

-C _i : This field indicates the presence of a PH field for the SCell with SCellIndex i as specified in [3GPP TS 36.331: “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification”]. The _Ci field is set to “1” to indicate that the PH field for the SCell with SCellIndex i is reported. The _Ci field is set to “0” to indicate that the PH field for the SCell with SCellIndex i is not reported;

-R: reserved bit, set to "0";

-V: This field indicates whether the PH value is based on a real transmission or a reference format. For Type 1 PH, V=0 indicates a real transmission on PUSCH, and V=1 indicates the use of the PUSCH reference format. For Type 2 PH, V=0 indicates a real transmission on PUCCH, and V=1 indicates the use of the PUCCH reference format. Furthermore, for both Type 1 and Type 2 PH, V=0 indicates the presence of an octet with the associated _PCMAX,c field, while V=1 indicates the omission of an octet with the associated _PCMAX,c field;

- Power Headroom (PH): This field indicates the power headroom level. The length of the field is 6 bits. The reported PH and the corresponding power headroom level are shown in the table in Figure 2C (Table 6.1.3.6-1 of 3GPP 36.321 V12.3.0) (the corresponding measured value (in dB) can be found in subclause 9.1.8.4 of [3GPP TS 36.133: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Requirements for support of radio resource management"]);

- P: This field indicates whether the UE applies power backoff due to power management (as allowed by P-MPR _c [3GPP TS36.101: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception"]). If power backoff due to power management has not been applied, the UE shall set P = 1 if the corresponding _PCMAX,c field would have had a different value;

- _PCMAX,c : If present, this field indicates the _PCMAX,c used to calculate the previous PH field or [3GPPTR 36.213: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); PhysicalLayer Procedures"]. The reported _PCMAX,c and the corresponding nominal UE transmit power levels are shown in the table in Figure 5 (Table 6.1.3.6a-1 of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0) (the corresponding measured values (in dBm) can be found in subclause 9.6.1 of [3GPP TS 36.133: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Requirements for support of radio resource management"]).

FIG8 illustrates an extended PHR MAC control element according to some embodiments of the inventive concept.

The table of FIG9 (Table 6.1.3.6a-1 of 3GPP TS 36.321 V12.3.0) shows the nominal UE transmit power levels for the extended PHR.

In the embodiment discussed below, a MAC CE is used in which the number of octets having the C field (a field for indicating the SCell index) varies according to the highest cell index configured for the UE, depending on the number of serving cells used.

The Activation/Deactivation MAC Control element is identified by a MAC PDU subheader with an LCID as specified in the table of Figure 2B. It has a dynamic size and contains one or more octets with up to 32 C fields and one R field. The Activation/Deactivation MAC Control element is defined as discussed with respect to Figure 10. The number of octets is sufficient to indicate the activation/deactivation status of the SCell with the highest SCellIndex.

-C _i : If there is an SCell configured with SCellIndex i as specified in [3GPP TS 36.331: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification"], this field indicates the activation/deactivation status of the SCell with SCellIndex i. Otherwise, the UE shall ignore the C _i field. The C _i field is set to "1" to indicate that the SCell with SCellIndex i is to be activated. The _{C i} field is set to "0" to indicate that the SCell with SCellIndex i is to be deactivated.

-R: Reserved bit, set to "0".

FIG10 illustrates activation/deactivation of a MAC control element according to some embodiments of the inventive concept.

According to some embodiments, the transmitter may send a set/list of MAC CEs of a certain type, where each MAC CE in the list has the ability to address a small number of cells, but a set/list of MAC CEs of the same type will collectively address more cells. In other words, the first MAC CE in the list may address a first set of cells, the second MAC CE in the list may address a second set of cells, the third MAC CE in the list may address a third set of cells, and so on. In other words, concatenation of MAC CEs may be used.

For example, consider that the network should send an activation/deactivation command to the UE and each activation/deactivation MAC CE can address 8 (or 7) cells. If a total of 32 cells should be addressed, the network will then send 4 activation/deactivation MAC CEs, where:

• The first activation/deactivation MAC CE addresses the cell with index 0-7 (or 1-7);

• The second activation/deactivation MAC CE addresses cells with indices 8-15;

• The third activation/deactivation MAC CE addresses cells with indices 16-23; and

• The fourth activation/deactivation MAC CE addresses cells with indices 24-31.

The order could also be reversed, so that:

• The first activation/deactivation MAC CE addresses cells with indices 24-31;

• The second activation/deactivation MAC CE addresses cells with indices 16-23;

• The third activation/deactivation MAC CE addresses cells with indices 8-15; and

• The fourth activation/deactivation MAC CE addresses cells with indices 0-7 (or 1-7).

In this embodiment, it is possible that the MAC CEs must be signaled in the same message block (e.g., the same MAC PDU). If the number of MAC CEs in a MAC PDU is too small to address all configured serving cells of the UE, the UE may reject the MAC CE set (or apply another behavior). For example, if the UE is configured with serving cells with indices 0 (e.g., PCell), 3, 4, and 18, three MAC CEs may be required to address serving cells with indices up to 18. Similarly, if the number of MAC CEs in a MAC PDU is too large and therefore addresses more cells than configured for the UE, the UE may reject the MAC CE set (or apply another behavior).

According to some embodiments of the inventive concept, different versions of MAC CEs are introduced, where different versions support different numbers of carriers. According to some other embodiments of the inventive concept, a dynamic MAC CE is introduced, which can dynamically change the number of supported carriers that can be indicated. According to still other embodiments of the inventive concept, multiple MAC CEs of a certain type are concatenated/transmitted simultaneously, where each MAC CE can address a small number of cells, but multiple MAC CEs together can address more cells.

The operation of a wireless terminal UE according to some embodiments will now be discussed with respect to the flow charts of Figures 15A, 15B, and 15C. At block 1501, the wireless terminal UE processor 303 may determine whether a change in component carrier configuration should occur, for example, based on an instruction received from the base station BS via the transceiver 301. If a change in component carrier configuration should occur at block 1501, the processor 303 may configure the component carrier at block 1503, and at block 1505, the MAC CE may communicate with the base station BS according to the configured CC.

The CCs configured for a wireless terminal (UE) may include a primary CC and zero, one, or more secondary CCs, and a secondary component carrier index may be associated with each secondary component carrier, as discussed above. Furthermore, each PHR or activation/deactivation MAC CE may include a bitmap, wherein each secondary component carrier index of a configured secondary component carrier is associated with a corresponding bit of the bitmap. As discussed above with respect to Figures 3 and 4, Figures 6 and 7, and Figures 8 and 10, the size of the MAC CE bitmap may be adjusted to accommodate the highest secondary component carrier index of the configured component carrier.

Accordingly, at block 1503, processor 301 may configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between a wireless terminal UE and a base station BS of a communication network. While configured with the first set of component carriers (e.g., until a change in CC configuration occurs at block 1501), processor 301 may transmit a first media access control (MAC) control element (CE) (e.g., a PHR MAC CE or an activation/deactivation MAC CE) at block 1505, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers. As indicated by the loop from block 1505 to block 1501 and back to block 1505 (bypassing block 1503), any number of MAC CEs may be transmitted when configured with the first set of component carriers.

In response to the change in CC configuration at block 1501, processor 301 may configure a second set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and a base station (BS) of the communication network, wherein the second set of component carriers is different from the first set of component carriers. While configured with the second set of component carriers (e.g., until there is another change in CC configuration at block 1501), processor 301 may deliver a second MAC CE (e.g., a PHR MAC CE or an activation/deactivation MAC CE) at block 1505, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers. Furthermore, the sizes of the first and second bitmaps may be different to accommodate different sets of configured component carriers. As indicated by the loop from block 1505 to block 1501 and back to block 1505 (bypassing block 1503), any number of MAC CEs may be delivered when configured with the second set of component carriers.

As used herein, a set of component carriers for a wireless terminal UE may include a primary component carrier and zero, one, or more secondary component carriers, and each secondary component carrier may be identified using a secondary component carrier index associated with a corresponding bit (e.g., C bit) of a bitmap included in a MAC CE (e.g., a bitmap of a PHRMAC CE or an activation/deactivation MAC CE). Two different sets of component carriers for the same wireless terminal UE (e.g., the first set and the second set of component carriers discussed above with respect to block 1501) may thus include the same primary component carrier, wherein at least one set includes at least one secondary component carrier that is not included in the other set. For example, a first set of component carriers may include a primary CC and two secondary CCs with respective indices associated with C bits _C2 and _C4 (such that the one-octet bitmap of Figures 3, 6, 8, or 10 may be used with the first set), and a second set of CCs may include a primary CC and three secondary CCs with respective indices associated with C bits _C2 , _C4 , and _C12 (such that the multiple/2-octet bitmap of Figures 4, 7, 8, or 10 may be used with the second set). Different sets of CCs for a wireless terminal may thus share some of the same primary and/or secondary CCs. Furthermore, different sets of CCs for a wireless terminal may be the same size (i.e., have the same number of component carriers), but different highest secondary CC indices for the two sets may result in MAC CE bitmaps of different sizes. For example, a first set of component carriers may include a primary CC and two secondary CCs with respective indices associated with C bits _C2 and _C4 (such that the one octet bitmap of FIG. 3 , 6 , 8 , or 10 may be used with the first set), and a second set of CCs may include a primary CC and two secondary CCs with respective indices associated with C bits _C2 and _C12 (such that the multiple/2 octet bitmap of FIG. 4 , 7 , 8 , or 10 may be used with the second set).

Accordingly, configuring the first set of component carriers may include configuring a primary component carrier and a first set of secondary component carriers, and configuring the second set of component carriers may include configuring the primary component carrier and a second set of secondary component carriers. The first and second sets of secondary component carriers may be different. Each of the secondary component carriers in the first set may correspond to a corresponding bit of the first bitmap, and each of the secondary component carriers in the second set may correspond to a corresponding bit of the second bitmap. Furthermore, a corresponding component carrier index may be associated with each secondary component carrier in the first set, and a corresponding component carrier index may be associated with each secondary component carrier in the second set. At least one of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers in the first set may exceed a threshold, and none of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers in the second set may exceed the threshold. Moreover, the size of the first bitmap may be larger than the size of the second bitmap.

If the MAC CE of block 1505 is a PHR MAC CE, communicating the PHR MAC CE may include transmitting (via the transceiver 301) a power headroom report for at least one of the configured CCs at block 1505' of FIG. 15B .

If the MAC CE of block 1505 is an activation/deactivation MAC CE, delivering the activation/deactivation MAC CE may include receiving (via transceiver 301 ) the activation/deactivation MAC CE at 1505 a ”, and activating/deactivating each component carrier of the first set of component carriers in response to the first bitmap at block 1505 b ”.

According to some embodiments, different logical channel identifiers (LCIDs) may be used for different MAC CEs of the same type with different bitmap sizes (e.g., different PHR MAC CEs with different bitmap sizes or different activation/deactivation MAC CEs with different bitmap sizes). For example, at block 1505, delivering a first MAC CE may include receiving a first MAC CE and applying bits of a first bitmap to corresponding component carriers of a first group of component carriers in response to a first LCID, and delivering a second MAC CE may include receiving a second MAC CE and applying bits of a second bitmap to corresponding component carriers of a second group of component carriers in response to a second LCID (different from the first LCID). According to another example, delivering the first MAC CE at block 1505 may include transmitting the first MAC CE with the first LCID to indicate that bits of the first bitmap are applicable to corresponding component carriers of the first group of component carriers, and delivering the second MAC CE may include transmitting a second MAC CE with a second LCID (different from the first LCID) to indicate that bits of the second bitmap are applicable to corresponding component carriers of the second group of component carriers.

According to other embodiments, the same LCID may be provided for different MAC CEs of the same type with different bitmap sizes. In such cases, the processor 303 may determine the appropriate bitmap size based on the current configuration of the component carriers. For example, delivering a first MAC CE at block 1505 may include interpreting/generating the first MAC CE to include a first bitmap of a first size in response to configuring a first set of component carriers for the communication link, and delivering a second MAC CE at block 1505 may include interpreting/generating the second MAC CE to include a second bitmap of a second size in response to configuring a second set of component carriers for the communication link.

According to some other embodiments of the inventive concept, one or more MAC CEs of the same type (e.g., one or more PHR MAC CEs or one or more activation/deactivation MAC CEs) and having the same bitmap size (e.g., one octet) may be used for the same set of component carriers to accommodate different CC configurations, and the one or more MAC CEs for the same set of CCs may be included in the same MAC PDU. For example, for a power headroom report PHR, if the indexes of the configured CCs in the set can fit within a single octet bitmap, then one PHR MAC CE shown in FIG. 3 may be included in the MAC PDU for the power headroom report. If the indexes of the configured CCs in the set cannot fit within a single octet bitmap, then two or more PHR MAC CEs shown in FIG. 3 may be included in the MAC PDU for the power headroom report. For example, for an activation/deactivation instruction, if the indexes of the configured CCs in the set can fit within a single octet bitmap, then one activation/deactivation MAC CE shown in FIG. 6 may be included in the MAC PDU for the activation/deactivation instruction. If the index of the set of configured CCs cannot be accommodated in one octet bitmap, two or more activation/deactivation MAC CEs of FIG. 6 may be included in the MAC PDU for the activation/deactivation command.

16 , at block 1601 the wireless terminal UE processor 303 may determine whether a change in component carrier should occur, for example, based on an instruction received from the base station BS via the transceiver 301. If a change in component carrier configuration should occur at block 1601, the processor 303 may configure the component carrier at block 1603, and at block 1605 the MAC CE may communicate with the base station BS according to the configured CC.

Accordingly, at block 1603, processor 303 may initially configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network. While configured with the first set of component carriers, processor 303 may communicate (e.g., transmit and/or receive via transceiver 301) first and second media access control (MAC) control elements (CEs). The first MAC CE may include a first bitmap, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of a first subset of the set of component carriers, and the second MAC CE may include a second bitmap, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of a second subset of the set of component carriers. The first and second MAC CEs may, for example, be the first and second PHR MAC CEs of FIG. 3 , or the first and second MAC CEs may be the first and second activation/deactivation MAC CEs of FIG. 6 , and the first and second MAC CEs may be included in the same MAC PDU.

As long as the configuration of the CCs remains unchanged in block 1601, the processor 303 may loop through the operations of blocks 1601 and 1605 using multiple MAC CEs in a MAC PDU, wherein one MAC CE of the PDU provides information of a first subset of configured CCs and another MAC CE of the PDU provides information of a second subset of configured CCs, wherein the first subset and the second subset are mutually exclusive.

If there is a change in CC configuration at block 1601, then at block 1603, processor 303 may configure a second set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, where the second set of component carriers is different from the first set of component carriers. For example, a one-octet bitmap may be sufficient to accommodate indices for the second set of carriers. When configured with the second set of component carriers, processor 303 may transmit a third MAC CE (via transceiver 301), where the third MAC CE includes a third bitmap, where bits of the third bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers. Furthermore, the third MAC CE may be contained in a second MAC PDU that is different from the MAC PDUs used for the first and second MAC CEs discussed above with respect to block 1605.

The first, second, and third bitmaps (of the first, second, and third MAC CEs discussed above with respect to block 1605) may have the same size. Furthermore, the first set of component carriers may include a primary component carrier and a first plurality of secondary component carriers, each of which in a first subset of the first plurality of secondary component carriers may correspond to a respective bit (C bit) of the first bitmap, and each of which in a second subset of the first plurality of secondary component carriers may correspond to a respective bit (C bit) of the second bitmap. Furthermore, the second set of component carriers may include a primary component carrier and a second plurality of secondary component carriers, each of which corresponds to a respective bit of the bits of the third bitmap.

FIG17 illustrates the operation of a base station (BS) according to some embodiments of the inventive concepts corresponding to the wireless terminal operation of FIG15A . At block 1701 , the processor 203 may determine whether a change in CC configuration is appropriate for the wireless terminal (UE). If appropriate, at block 1703 , the processor 203 may configure the component carriers (CCs) of the wireless terminal (UE) by transmitting (via the transceiver 201 ) instructions for CC configuration to the wireless terminal (UE). At block 1705 , the processor 203 may communicate MAC CEs with the wireless terminal (e.g., transmitting an activation/deactivation MAC CE and/or receiving a PHR MAC CE) for the configured CCs.

At block 1703, for example, the processor 203 may configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between a communication network node and a wireless terminal (e.g., transmitting a CC configuration instruction to the wireless terminal UE via the transceiver 201). When the first set of component carriers is configured for the communication link, at block 1705, the processor 203 may communicate a first media access control (MAC) control element (CE) with the wireless terminal UE over the communication link (e.g., transmitting an activation/deactivation MAC CE or receiving a PHR MAC CE), wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first size (e.g., no more than one octet), wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers. At block 1705, any number of MAC CEs may be transmitted/received for the first set of component carriers until the CC configuration is changed at blocks 1701 and 1703.

In response to determining at block 1701 that the CC configuration of the wireless terminal UE should be changed, the processor 203 may configure a second set of component carriers for a communication link between the communication network node and the wireless terminal. When configured with the second set of component carriers, the processor 203 may transmit a second MAC CE on the communication link, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second size (e.g., more than one octet), wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and wherein a first size of the first bitmap is different from a second size of the second bitmap. Multiple sets of component carriers are discussed in more detail above with respect to Figures 15A, 15B, and 15C.

According to some embodiments, communicating the first MAC CE at block 1705 may include receiving a first extended power headroom PHR MAC CE (by transceiver 201 ), and communicating the second MAC CE at block 1705 may include receiving a second extended PHR MAC CE (by transceiver 201 ).

According to some embodiments, delivering the first MAC CE may include transmitting a first activation/deactivation MAC CE, and delivering the second MAC CE may include transmitting a second activation/deactivation MAC CE at block 1705. For example, delivering the first MAC CE may include transmitting a first activation/deactivation MAC CE to activate/deactivate each component carrier of a first group of component carriers according to a first bitmap, and delivering the second MAC CE may include transmitting a second activation/deactivation MAC CE to activate/deactivate each component carrier of a second group of component carriers according to a second bitmap.

According to some embodiments, a first logical channel identifier (LCID) may be provided for a first MAC CE, a second LCID may be provided for a second MAC CE, and the first and second LCIDs may be different. For example, delivering the first MAC CE may include receiving a first MAC CE (e.g., a first PHR MAC CE) and applying bits of a first bitmap to corresponding component carriers of a first group of component carriers in response to the first LCID, and delivering the second MAC CE may include receiving a second MAC CE (e.g., a second PHR MAC CE) and applying bits of a second bitmap to corresponding component carriers of a second group of component carriers in response to the second LCID.

According to some other embodiments, a first logical channel identifier (LCID) may be provided for the first MAC CE, a second LCID may be provided for the second MAC CE, and the first and second LCIDs may be the same. Transmitting the first MAC CE may include interpreting/generating the first MAC CE to include a first bitmap having a first size in response to a first set of component carriers configured for the communication link, and transmitting the second MAC CE may include interpreting/generating the second MAC CE to include a second bitmap having a second size in response to a second set of component carriers configured for the communication link.

Configuring the first set of component carriers at block 1701 may thus include configuring a primary component carrier and a first set of secondary component carriers, configuring the second set of component carriers at block 1701 may include configuring a primary component carrier and a second set of secondary component carriers, the first and second sets of secondary component carriers may be different, each of the first set of secondary component carriers may correspond to a respective bit of the first bitmap, and each of the second set of secondary component carriers may correspond to a respective bit of the second bitmap.

A corresponding component carrier index may be associated with each secondary component carrier of the first group, a corresponding component carrier index may be associated with each secondary component carrier of the second group, at least one of the component carrier indexes of the secondary component carriers of the first group may exceed a threshold, no index of the component carrier indexes of the secondary component carriers of the second group may exceed the threshold, and a size of the first bitmap may be greater than a size of the second bitmap.

The first bitmap may be arranged in a first number of bit octets, the second bitmap may be arranged in a second number of bit octets, and the first and second numbers of bit octets may be different.

The number of component carriers in the first set of component carriers may be greater than the number of component carriers in the second set of component carriers, and the size of the first bitmap may be greater than the size of the second bitmap.

The number of component carriers in the first set of component carriers may be smaller than the number of component carriers in the second set of component carriers, and the size of the first bitmap may be smaller than the size of the second bitmap.

A corresponding component carrier index may be associated with each component carrier of the first group, a corresponding component carrier index may be associated with each component carrier of the second group, at least one of the component carrier indexes of the first group may exceed a threshold, no index of the component carrier indexes of the second group may exceed the threshold, and a size of the first bitmap may be greater than a size of the second bitmap.

According to some embodiments of the inventive concept, the operations discussed above with respect to FIG. 17 may be performed individually and/or in parallel for a plurality of wireless terminals UE (e.g., wireless terminals UE1 and UE2) communicating with a base station BS (e.g., base station BS-1). The bitmap sizes of the MAC CEs of different wireless terminals UE may thus be different.

Accordingly, at block 1703, the processor 203 of the base station BS-1 may configure a first set of component carriers for a first communication link between the base station BS-1 and a first wireless terminal UE1, and when configured with the first set of component carriers for the first communication link, the processor 203 may transmit a first medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) on the first communication link at block 1705, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers. Furthermore, at block 1703, the processor 203 of the base station BS-1 may configure a second set of component carriers for a second communication link between the base station BS-1 and a second wireless terminal UE2, and when configured with the second set of component carriers for the second communication link, the processor 203 may transmit a second MAC CE on the second communication link, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and wherein the first size of the first bitmap is different from the second size of the second bitmap.

According to some embodiments, the base station operation of Figure 17 may correspond to the wireless terminal operation of Figures 15A, 15B and 15C, and the definition of MAC CE discussed above with respect to Figures 15A, 15B and 15C may apply to the MAC CE of Figure 17.

According to some embodiments of the inventive concept illustrated in the flowchart of FIG18 , one or more MAC CEs of the same type (e.g., one or more PHR MAC CEs or one or more activation/deactivation MAC CEs) and having the same bitmap size (e.g., one octet) may be used for the same set of component carriers to accommodate different CC configurations, and the one or more MAC CEs for the same set of CCs may be included in the same MAC PDU. For example, for a power headroom report (PHR) (received by a base station BS from a wireless terminal UE), if the indexes of the configured CCs in the set can be accommodated in a single octet bitmap, then one PHR MAC CE of FIG3 may be included in the MAC PDU for the power headroom report. If the indexes of the configured CCs in the set cannot be accommodated in a single octet bitmap, then two or more PHR MAC CEs of FIG3 may be included in the MAC PDU for the power headroom report. For example, for an activation/deactivation command (transmitted from a base station BS to a wireless terminal UE), if the indexes of the configured CCs can be accommodated in a single octet bitmap, then one activation/deactivation MAC CE shown in FIG6 may be included in the MAC PDU for the activation/deactivation command. If the indexes of the configured CCs cannot be accommodated in a single octet bitmap, then two or more activation/deactivation MAC CEs shown in FIG6 may be included in the MAC PDU for the activation/deactivation command.

As shown in Figure 18, in response to determining at block 1801 that the CC configuration should be changed, at block 1803, the base station (BS) processor 203 may configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between a wireless terminal (UE) and the base station (BS). When configured with the first set of component carriers, at block 1805, the processor 203 may communicate (via the transceiver 201) first and second media access control (MAC) control elements (CEs) along with a first MAC CE containing a first bitmap, wherein the bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of a first subset of the first set of component carriers, and a second MAC CE containing a second bitmap, wherein the bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of a second subset of the first set of component carriers. As long as the CC configuration remains unchanged at block 1801, the operations of blocks 1801 and 1805 may be repeated for different subsets of the first set of component carriers configured for the communication link using the first and second MAC CEs.

In response to changing the CC configuration at block 1801, processor 203 may configure a second set of component carriers for a communication link between a wireless terminal UE and a base station BS, where the second set of component carriers is different from the first set of component carriers. When configured with the second set of component carriers, processor 203 may transmit a third MAC CE (via transceiver 201) at block 1805, where the third MAC CE includes a third bitmap, where bits of the third bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers. As long as the CC configuration remains unchanged at block 1801, the operations of blocks 1801 and 1805 may be repeated for the second set of component carriers using only one MAC CE.

Furthermore, the first, second, and third bitmaps may have the same size, wherein the second set of component carriers includes a primary component carrier and a plurality of secondary component carriers, and wherein each of the plurality of secondary component carriers corresponds to one of the bits of the third bitmap.

Furthermore, the first and second MAC CE's may be included in the same MAC protocol data unit (PDU). For example, the first and second MAC CE's may be included in a first MAC protocol data unit (PDU), and the third MAC CE may be included in a second MAC PDU. According to some embodiments, the base station operations of FIG. 18 may correspond to the wireless terminal operations of FIG. 16 , and the definitions of MAC CEs discussed above with respect to FIG. 16 may apply to the MAC CEs of FIG. 18 .

In some of the embodiments described above, the transmitter of the MAC CE may select one of several MAC CE versions based on the number/group of carriers configured for the wireless terminal, or in a specific embodiment, based on whether the wireless terminal is configured to use a cell with a cell index above a threshold (e.g., a cell index greater than 7).

A wireless terminal UE can be configured with a serving cell via the RRC layer, and the base station eNB can send an RRC message (RRCConnectionReconfiguration) to the wireless terminal UE, indicating the addition of the serving cell or cells indicated in the RRC message. The wireless terminal UE is allowed a certain processing time for the RRC message, during which it performs procedures/operations to apply the configuration. In the example of adding (or configuring) a serving cell, the wireless terminal UE is allowed 20 ms of processing time. Accordingly, if the wireless terminal UE receives an RRC message indicating the addition of a component carrier (also called a serving cell) at time T, the wireless terminal UE should complete the addition (or configuration) of the serving cell by time T + 20 ms at the latest, but the wireless terminal UE may complete the configuration earlier. When the wireless terminal UE has successfully applied the configuration requested by the RRC message, the wireless terminal UE responds to the network with a completion message (RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete) indicating that the configuration has been completed. This message indicates to the network that the UE is now applying the new configuration (the configuration indicated in the RRC message).

In order to be able to send the completion message (RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete), the network must schedule the wireless terminal UE on the PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) (just like any other transmission on the PUSCH), and the transmission on the PUSCH uses the synchronous HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) protocol.

The HARQ protocol is a stop-and-wait transmission protocol, in which a transmitter (in this case, a wireless terminal (UE)) sends data and waits for feedback from a receiver (in this case, a network base station (eNB)) regarding whether the transmission was successfully received by the receiver or whether the transmitter should perform a retransmission. In LTE (Long Term Evolution), the time between transmission and expected feedback is 4 milliseconds (ms), and subsequent retransmissions (if any) are performed 4 milliseconds later. This means that the transmitter transmits every 8 milliseconds. However, in LTE, the wireless terminal (UE) can have 8 parallel HARQ processes, meaning that in each subframe, the wireless terminal (UE) can perform transmissions using a different HARQ process in each subframe.

Due to the HARQ protocol and the provision of parallel HARQ processes, data packets from a transmitter can arrive at a receiver out of order. If a wireless terminal (UE) is to transmit two sets of data, S1 and S2 (e.g., data packets S1 and S2), the first set of data, S1, can be transmitted using a first HARQ process in subframe n, and the second (subsequent) set of data, S2, can be transmitted using a second HARQ process transmitted in subframe n+1. If transmission of data S1 in subframe n fails, but transmission of data S2 in subframe n+1 succeeds, the receiver will receive the second set of data, S2, before receiving the first set of data, S1.

Returning to the RRC Complete message, the RRC Complete message may be sent in subframe n, and the MAC CE may be transmitted in subframe n+1. However, as explained above, the MAC CE may be successfully received by the eNB before the RRC Complete message is received by the eNB (e.g., if the initial reception of the RRC Complete message at the eNB fails). In this case, when the eNB receives the MAC CE in subframe n+1, the eNB will not yet be aware that the UE has applied the new RRC configuration because the eNB has not yet received the RRC Complete message.

In general, a base station eNB may add (or remove) a set of serving cells for a wireless terminal UE, but due to the HARQ protocol, the base station eNB may not know whether the wireless terminal UE has successfully performed this configuration. In this case, the base station eNB will not know which MAC CE version the wireless terminal UE is sending, and the base station eNB will not know how to decode the MAC CE received from the wireless terminal UE. As a result, the base station may not be able to decode all data units included in the same transmission into MAC CEs, so that undecoded data units may need to be discarded.

When applying some embodiments of the MAC CE discussed above, the network base station eNB may not know which version of the MAC CE is being applied by the wireless terminal UE during the time when the UE is applying the RRC reconfiguration message (e.g., between the time the base station eNB transmits the RRCConnectionReconfiguration message and the time the base station eNB receives the RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete message).

According to some embodiments disclosed below, methods and operations for resolving this issue may be provided, for example, by having a wireless terminal (UE) transmit an indicator (also known as a MAC CE version indicator) to a network base station (eNB). This indicator, referred to as a version indicator, may be included in a version indicator field of a MAC CE. By providing the version indicator in the version indicator field of a MAC CE, the receiving base station (eNB) can determine which MAC CE version is being transmitted and thus correctly decode the MAC CE.

According to some other embodiments, the wireless terminal UE may suspend transmitting MAC CE in response to receiving the RRCConnectionReconfiguration message until a HARQ acknowledgment ACK of the RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete message is received from the base station eNB.

It should be appreciated that, even though this has been used as an example of a wireless terminal UE indicating a MAC CE version to a network base station eNB, embodiments may also be used to allow a network base station eNB to indicate to a wireless terminal UE which MAC CE version it has sent. Furthermore, it should be appreciated that, even though embodiments have been disclosed using MAC CEs of different versions, embodiments may also be applied to other messages that indicate different versions, such as a MAC header, MAC subheader, and/or payload, which may also give rise to version ambiguity.

According to some embodiments, a mapping may be established between the version indicator field value and the MAC CE version. A wireless terminal (UE) may indicate the version of a MAC CE in the MAC CE version indicator field by setting the version indicator field to the following values: a first value to indicate that the MAC CE belongs to the first version; a second value to indicate that the MAC CE belongs to the second version; a third value to indicate that the MAC CE belongs to the third version; and so on. Specifically, when the version indicator field is a one-bit flag, the wireless terminal (UE) may set the flag to 0 (or 1) when using a MAC CE of the first version, and may set the flag to 1 (or 0) when using a MAC CE of the second version.

This version indicator field can be implemented by using reserved bits in existing MAC CEs. In the extended power headroom MAC CE shown in Figures 21A and 21B, if a first version of the MAC CE (supporting one primary component carrier and seven secondary component carriers _C1 to _C7 ) is transmitted as shown in Figure 21A, the R field in the upper right corner of the figure may be set to 0. If another version of the MAC CE (supporting one primary component carrier and 31 secondary component carriers) is transmitted as shown in Figure 21B, the R field is set to 1. In the examples of Figures 21A-B, the version indicator field may be included in the first octet of the component carrier bitmap used to provide the MAC CE. According to the embodiments of Figures 3-4, 6-7, 8, and 10, the version indicator field may be included in the last octet of the component carrier bitmap used to provide the MAC CE (using the bit marked R).

Based on the MAC CE version indicator included in the version indicator field, the base station eNB can know when receiving a MAC CE and, based on whether the version indicator bit is 0 or 1, whether the wireless terminal UE has sent the first MAC CE version or the second MAC CE version. If this embodiment is used, the name of the version indicator field can be changed from "R" (which indicates that the field is "reserved") to another name, such as I (to indicate an indicator).

According to other embodiments, the wireless terminal UE may indicate in the MAC CE which version is being used by changing (e.g., switching) a flag to a value (after a reconfiguration resulting in a change in the MAC CE version) that is different from the value the flag had in the previous transmission (before the reconfiguration resulting in the change in the MAC CE version). For example, if two MAC CE versions are used, a one-bit flag can be used that is switched when the MAC CE version is changed. As an alternative to switching a one-bit flag, a multi-bit version indicator field that can take on more than two values can be used, and the value of the version indicator can be increased/incremented (or decreased/decremented or changed according to some other rule or sequence) when the MAC CE version changes. In the event that the version is reconfigured before the previous version change has been confirmed, a version indicator field that can distinguish between more than two values or states can provide version consistency. In other words, a multi-bit version indicator field can enable overlapping reconfigurations. Furthermore, a multi-bit version indicator field that can take on more than two values may be particularly useful if there are more than two (MAC CE) versions to distinguish.

The base station eNB can thereby know that if the value of the version indicator field has changed compared to the previous value of the version indicator field (ie, compared to the last time a MAC CE was sent), the wireless terminal UE is sending a MAC CE of a different version.

FIG19A is a flow chart illustrating operation of a wireless terminal (UE) according to some embodiments of the inventive concepts. At block 1900, the UE processor 303 may establish a connection (e.g., an RRC connection) with a base station (BS) via the transceiver 301. Upon establishing the connection, an initial configuration of component carriers (CCs) may be defined for the connection, and at block 1901, this initial configuration may be considered a change in CC configuration (relative to no component carriers configured prior to establishing the connection). At block 1903, the processor 303 may configure the component carriers, and as part of block 1903, the processor 303 may transmit a completion message (via the transceiver 301) to the base station (B) indicating that the CC configuration is complete. Because the wireless terminal has not previously connected to the base station (BS), at block 1905, the first MAC CE version of the first CC configuration for the connection will change (from no previously defined MAC CE version), and at block 1907a, the processor 303 may then select an appropriate MAC CE version and version indicator. At blocks 1909 , 1911 and 1901 , the processor 303 may thus transmit a MAC CE (via the transceiver 301 ) using the initial MAC CE version and MAC CE version indicator for each transmission of a MAC CE until at block 1901 a change in CC configuration is received from the base station BS (e.g. using an RRCConnectionReconfiguration message).

Upon receiving a message (e.g., an RRCConnectionReconfiguration message) that changes the CC configuration at block 1901 (via the transceiver 301), the processor 301 may configure a new component carrier at block 1903. As discussed above, configuring the component carrier at block 1903 may include transmitting a completion message (e.g., an RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete message) to the base station BS via the transceiver 301. Such a change in CC configuration may or may not require the use of a new MAC CE version and a new version indicator.

For example, if the initial CC configuration includes component carriers _C1 , _C3 , and _C5 , and the next CC configuration includes component carriers _C2 , _C4 , and _C6 , the MAC CE version of FIG. 21A with a 7-bit bitmap for component carriers can be used to accommodate both CC configurations, and no change in the MAC CE version is required at block 1905. In such a case, the processor 303 may continue the operations of blocks 1909, 1911, and 1901 without selecting a new MAC CE version and version indicator until the next change in CC configuration at block 1901.

On the other hand, if the initial CC configuration includes component carriers _C1 , _C3 , and _C5 , and the next CC configuration includes component carriers _C2 , _C6 , and _C14 , the MAC CE version of FIG. 21A (having a 7-bit bitmap for component carriers) may be used to support the initial CC configuration, but the second CC configuration may require the MAC CE version of FIG. 21B (having a 31-bit bitmap for component carriers). Accordingly, at block 1905, a change in MAC CE version may be indicated. In response to determining that a change in MAC CE version is indicated at block 1905, the processor 303 may select a new MAC CE version and version indicator at block 1907a, and may use the new MAC CE version and version indicator for subsequent MAC CE transmissions at block 1911 until a new CC configuration is received at block 1901.

The processor 303 may thus loop through the operations of blocks 1901 , 1909 and 1911 , transmitting MAC CEs using the same MAC CE version and version indicator until a change in CC configuration is received at block 1901 indicating a change in MAC CE version at block 1905 .

In the embodiment of FIG19A, each version indicator can be mapped to a corresponding MAC CE version. For example, a 1-bit version indicator can have two values (0 and 1) that map to the two MAC CE versions of FIG21A and FIG21B, respectively, or a 2-bit version indicator can have four values (00, 01, 10, and 11) that map to four MAC CE versions, respectively. In such an embodiment, the version indicator can effectively identify the MAC CE being used.

According to certain other embodiments of FIG. 19B , a version indicator can be used to indicate a change in MAC CE version without necessarily identifying the specific MAC CE being used. The operations of blocks 1900 , 1901 , 1903 , 1905 , 1909 , and 1911 can be substantially the same as those discussed above with respect to FIG. 19A . However, at block 1907 b , the version indicator can be toggled or incremented/decremented to indicate a change in MAC CE version. With a 1-bit version indicator, the value of the version indicator can be toggled (from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1) when the MAC CE version changes. Thus, the 1-bit version indicator can be used to indicate a change in MAC CE version, regardless of the number of available MAC CE versions. Similarly, the 2-bit version indicator (having 4 possible values) can be incremented/decremented each time the MAC CE version changes. By incrementing, the value of the version indicator may increase by one (e.g., from 00 to 01, from 01 to 10, from 10 to 11, or from 11 to 00), and by decrementing, the value of the version indicator may decrease by one (e.g., from 00 to 11, from 11 to 10, from 10 to 01, or from 01 to 00).

In LTE, the wireless terminal UE can be expected to have complied with the RRC message after a certain time, which can be in the range of 10-20 milliseconds (depending on the type of reconfiguration being performed). The base station eNB may need to monitor the version indicator field only for a certain time (e.g., a 10-20 millisecond delay time, also referred to as a monitoring period) after transmitting the RRC message intended to cause the wireless terminal UE to change the MAC CE version. After the monitoring period has elapsed, the base station BS can assume that the wireless terminal UE is using the new MAC CE version. Therefore, this embodiment allows the base station eNB to refrain from monitoring the version indicator field after the monitoring period has elapsed, and can achieve a certain processing gain because the base station eNB does not need to apply additional logic for determining the value of the version indicator field after this monitoring period has elapsed.

The eNB may also only need to monitor the Version Indicator field until the UE has confirmed that the RRC configuration has been applied (e.g., when the eNB receives the RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete message). The eNB may thus only need to monitor the Version Indicator field for the shorter of two durations (completion of the monitoring period or receipt of the RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete message).

FIG20 is a flow chart illustrating base station operations according to some embodiments discussed above. At block 2001, processor 203 may establish a connection with a wireless terminal (UE) via transceiver 201, and establishing the connection may include configuring the wireless terminal (UE) with a component carrier (e.g., a primary component carrier (PCell)). Until a change in CC configuration occurs at block 2005, processor 203 may loop through operations at blocks 2005, 2021, and 2023, and at block 2023, processor 203 may receive/decode a MAC CE from the wireless terminal (UE) based on the expected MAC CE version (e.g., without considering the version indicator).

If, at block 2005, processor 203 determines that the CC configuration of the wireless terminal UE should be changed, then at block 2007, processor 203 may provide the new CC configuration by transmitting an RRCConnectionReconfiguration message indicating the new CC configuration. At block 2009, if the new CC configuration is not expected to result in a change in the MAC CE version, processor 203 may continue with the operations of blocks 2021, 2023, and 2005, and at block 2023, processor 203 may receive/decode a MAC CE from the wireless terminal UE based on the expected MAC CE version (e.g., without considering the version indicator). If the previous CC configuration configured component carriers _C1 , _C3 , and _C5 , and the new CC configuration of block 2007 configures component carriers _C2 , _C4 , and _C6 , the MAC CE version of FIG. 21A may be used both before and after the CC configuration change.

However, at block 2009, if the new CC configuration is expected to result in a change in the MAC CE version, then at block 2010, processor 203 may select a new MAC CE version and a new version indicator. For example, if the previous CC configuration configured component carriers _C1 , _C3 , and _C5 , and the new CC configuration at block 2007 configures component carriers _C2 , _C4 , and _C6 , then the MAC CE version of FIG. 21A may be used before the CC configuration is changed, while the MAC CE version of FIG. 21B may be used after the CC configuration is changed. As discussed above with respect to FIG. 19A and FIG. 19B , the version indicator may change from a first value to a second value to allow processor 201 to determine whether a subsequently received MAC CE belongs to the first or second version. For example, the version indicator may: change from a first value mapped to a first MAC CE version to a second value mapped to a second MAC CE version; switch from a first value to a second value; increment from a first value to a next value; and so on.

At blocks 2011 and 2015, the processor 203 may determine whether any MAC CEs were received during a monitoring period (e.g., up to 20 ms after transmission of the RRCConnectionReconfiguration message at block 2007). If any MAC CEs were received from the wireless terminal UE during this monitoring period at block 2011, the processor 203 may use/consider the version indicator to receive/decode the MAC CEs. For example, at block 2017, the processor 203 may receive/decode the MAC CE twice, once assuming the previous MAC CE version and once assuming the expected MAC CE version indicator, and may use the result of the appropriate decoding. At block 2019, if the received MAC CE has the previous version indicator, the processor 203 may continue the operations of blocks 2011, 2015, 2017, and 2019 of the monitoring period until the monitoring period is completed at block 2015, or a MAC CE with a new version indicator is received at block 2019. Once the monitoring cycle is completed in block 2015, or a MAC CE with a new version indicator is received in block 2019, the processor 203 may continue with the operations of blocks 2021, 2023 (receiving/decoding based on the new current MAC CE version without considering the version indicator) and 2005 until there is the next change in CC configuration in block 2005.

According to some other embodiments, upon receiving/decoding/applying an RRC message that would require the wireless terminal UE to change the MAC CE version used, the wireless terminal UE may suspend transmission of the affected MAC CE type. In other words, the processor 203 may delay transmission of any MAC CE of the affected type during the delay period, even if other processes in the wireless terminal UE suggest that the wireless terminal UE should send such MAC CE. According to some embodiments, the processor 203 may resume transmission of the suspended MAC CE type, for example:

• after a certain time delay has elapsed (e.g. the RRC processing time has elapsed since the UE received the RRC message);

• after a certain number of new radio frames have elapsed; and/or

• When a certain event occurs (for example, a confirmation is received from the base station eNB indicating that the base station eNB has received the RRC completion message (RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete)).

FIG19C is a flow chart illustrating wireless terminal operation according to some embodiments discussed above with respect to delay. The operations of blocks 1901, 1903, 1905, and 1909 may be the same as those discussed above with respect to FIG19A and 19B, and at block 1907c, the processor 203 may select the appropriate MAC CE version for the new CC configuration (without selecting a version indicator). However, at blocks 1907d and 1907e, the processor 303 may delay any MAC CE transmissions of the affected MAC CE types, which may otherwise occur during periods when the base station may not be sure what MAC CE version to expect. The delay of blocks 1907d and 1907e may be defined as ending after: a set period of time (e.g., 20 ms) after receiving the instruction to change the CC configuration in block 1901; a set number of radio frames (e.g., 3 radio frames) after receiving the instruction to change the CC configuration in block 1901; and/or in response to receiving an acknowledgment ACK from the base station BS confirming receipt of the sent completion message (RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete), for example, when the component carrier is configured in block 1903. Because the base station can reduce the likelihood of ambiguity regarding the MAC CE version, the version indicator may be omitted from the embodiment of FIG19C (e.g., in block 1911).

Example Embodiments

Embodiment 1: A method for operating a wireless terminal that communicates with a wireless communication network, the method comprising: configuring a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network; when configured with the first set of component carriers, transmitting a first media access control (MAC) control element (CE), wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of the first set of component carriers; configuring a second set of component carriers for the communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, wherein the first set of component carriers is different from the second set of component carriers; and when configured with the second set of component carriers, transmitting a second MAC CE, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 2: The method of embodiment 1, wherein delivering the first MAC CE comprises delivering a first extended power headroom (PHR) MAC CE, and wherein delivering the second MAC CE comprises delivering a second extended PHR MAC CE.

Embodiment 3: The method of embodiment 2, wherein the first extended PHR MAC CE includes power headroom information for each component carrier of the first group of component carriers.

Embodiment 4: The method of embodiment 1, wherein delivering the first MAC CE comprises receiving a first activation/deactivation MAC CE, and wherein delivering the second MAC CE comprises receiving a second activation/deactivation MAC CE.

Embodiment 5: The method of embodiment 4 further includes: activating/deactivating each component carrier of the first group of component carriers in response to the first bitmap in response to the first activation/deactivation MAC CE; and activating/deactivating each component carrier of the second group of component carriers in response to the second bitmap in response to the second activation/deactivation MAC CE.

Embodiment 6: The method of embodiment 1, wherein the first MAC CE is an extended power headroom PHR MAC CE and the second MAC CE is an activation/deactivation MAC CE, or wherein the first MAC CE is an activation/deactivation MAC CE and the second MAC CE is an extended PHR MAC CE.

Embodiment 7: The method of any one of Embodiments 1-6, wherein a first logical channel identifier LCID is provided for the first MAC CE, a second LCID is provided for the second MAC CE, and the first and second LCIDs are different.

Embodiment 8: The method of embodiment 7, wherein delivering a first MAC CE comprises receiving a first MAC CE and applying a bit of a first bitmap to a corresponding component carrier of a first group of component carriers in response to a first LCID, and wherein delivering a second MAC CE comprises receiving a second MAC CE and applying a bit of a second bitmap to a corresponding component carrier of a second group of component carriers in response to a second LCID.

Embodiment 9: The method of any one of embodiments 1-5, wherein a first logical channel identifier LCID is provided for the first MAC CE, a second LCID is provided for the second MAC CE, and the first and second LCIDs are the same.

Embodiment 10: The method of any one of embodiments 1-5 and 9, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first MAC CE version indicator, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second MAC CE version indicator, and wherein the first and second MAC CE version indicators are different.

Embodiment 11: The method of embodiment 10, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers comprises configuring the first set of component carriers in response to receiving a first reconfiguration message from the wireless communication network, and wherein configuring the second set of component carriers comprises configuring the second set of component carriers in response to receiving a second reconfiguration message from the wireless communication network.

Embodiment 12: The method of embodiment 11 further includes: in response to receiving a first reconfiguration message, selecting a first MAC CE version having a first bitmap size, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE includes transmitting the first MAC CE to the wireless communication network in response to selecting the first MAC CE version, wherein the first MAC CE has a first MAC CE version with a first bitmap size and a first version indicator; and in response to receiving a second reconfiguration message, selecting a second MAC CE version having a second bitmap size, wherein transmitting the second MAC CE includes transmitting a second MAC CE in response to selecting the second MAC CE version, wherein the second MAC CE has a second MAC CE version with a second bitmap size and a second version indicator.

Embodiment 13: The method of any one of embodiments 1-5 and 9-12, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers includes configuring the first set of component carriers in response to receiving a first reconfiguration message from the wireless communication network, and wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring the second set of component carriers in response to receiving a second reconfiguration message from the wireless communication network, the method further comprising: in response to configuring the second set of component carriers, delaying sending any subsequent MAC CE containing the second MAC CE until a delay period has passed and/or until multiple radio frames have passed.

Embodiment 14: The method of any one of embodiments 1-5 and 9-12, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers includes configuring the first set of component carriers in response to receiving a first reconfiguration message from the wireless communication network, and wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring the second set of component carriers in response to receiving a second reconfiguration message from the wireless communication network, the method further comprising: transmitting a reconfiguration complete message to the wireless communication network in response to receiving the second reconfiguration message; and delaying sending any subsequent MAC CE including the second MAC CE in response to configuring the second set of component carriers until an acknowledgement of the reconfiguration complete message is received from the wireless communication network.

Embodiment 15: The method of any one of embodiments 1-5 and 9-14, wherein delivering the first MAC CE comprises delivering a first power headroom report (PHR) MAC CE comprising a first bitmap having a first bitmap size to the wireless communication network, and wherein delivering the second MAC CE comprises delivering a second PHR MAC CE comprising a second bitmap having a second bitmap size to the wireless communication network.

Embodiment 16: The method of any one of embodiments 1-6 and 9, wherein delivering the first MAC CE includes interpreting/generating the first MAC CE to include a first bitmap having a first bitmap size in response to a first set of component carriers configured for the communication link, and wherein delivering the second MAC CE includes interpreting/generating the second MAC CE to include a second bitmap having a second bitmap size in response to a second set of component carriers configured for the communication link.

Embodiment 17: The method of any one of Embodiments 1-16, wherein the first set of component carriers includes no more than 8 component carriers, wherein the second set of component carriers includes more than 8 component carriers, and wherein the second bitmap size is greater than the first bitmap size.

Embodiment 18: The method of embodiment 17, wherein the first bitmap size is no more than one octet and the second bitmap size is more than one octet.

Embodiment 19: The method of any one of Embodiments 1-18, wherein configuring a first set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a first set of secondary component carriers, wherein configuring a second set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a second set of secondary component carriers, wherein the first set and the second set of secondary component carriers are different, wherein each of the first set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the first bitmap, and wherein each of the second set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 20: The method of any one of Embodiments 19, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the second group exceeds a threshold, and wherein a first bitmap size of the first bitmap is greater than a second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 21: The method of any one of embodiments 1-18, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a set of secondary component carriers, wherein each of the set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a respective bit of the first bitmap, and wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring the primary component carrier.

Embodiment 22: The method of embodiment 21, wherein configuring the second group of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier without configuring any secondary component carrier for the second group.

Embodiment 23: The method of any of Embodiments 1-22, wherein the first bitmap is arranged in a first number of bit octets, wherein the second bitmap is arranged in a second number of bit octets, and wherein the first and second numbers of bit octets are different.

Embodiment 24: The method of any one of embodiments 1-23, wherein the number of component carriers in the first group of component carriers is greater than the number of component carriers in the second group of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is greater than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 25: The method of any one of embodiments 1-20 and 23, wherein the number of component carriers in the first group of component carriers is less than the number of component carriers in the second group of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is less than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 26: The method of any one of embodiments 1-25, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the second group exceeds a threshold, and wherein a first bitmap size of the first bitmap is greater than a second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 27: The method of any one of embodiments 1-26, wherein delivering the first MAC CE includes delivering the first MAC CE after configuring the first set of component carriers, wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring the second set of component carriers after delivering the first MAC CE, and wherein delivering the second MAC CE includes delivering the second MAC CE after configuring the second set of component carriers.

Embodiment 28: The method of any one of Embodiments 1-26, wherein delivering the second MAC CE includes delivering the second MAC CE after configuring the second set of component carriers, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers includes configuring the first set of component carriers after delivering the second MAC CE, and wherein delivering the first MAC CE includes delivering the first MAC CE after configuring the first set of component carriers.

Embodiment 29: A method of operating a wireless terminal for communicating with a wireless communication network, the method comprising: configuring a set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network; and when configured with the set of component carriers, transmitting a first and a second media access control MAC control element CE, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap, wherein the bits of the first bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of a first subset of the set of component carriers, and wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap, wherein the bits of the second bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of a second subset of the set of component carriers.

Embodiment 30: The method of embodiment 29, wherein the group of component carriers is a first group of component carriers, the method further comprising: configuring a second group of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, wherein the second group of component carriers is different from the first group of component carriers; and when configured with the second group of component carriers, transmitting a third MAC CE, wherein the third MAC CE includes a third bitmap, wherein bits of the third bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of the second group of component carriers.

Embodiment 31: The method of embodiment 30, wherein the first, second, and third bitmaps have the same bitmap size, wherein the second set of component carriers includes a primary component carrier and a plurality of secondary component carriers, and wherein each of the plurality of secondary component carriers corresponds to one of the bits of the third bitmap.

Embodiment 32: The method of any one of Embodiments 30-31, wherein configuring a first set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a set of secondary component carriers, wherein the first subset of the set of component carriers includes a first subset of the set of secondary component carriers, and wherein the second subset of the set of component carriers includes a second subset of the set of secondary component carriers.

Embodiment 33: The method of embodiment 32, wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier without configuring any secondary component carrier for the second set.

Embodiment 34: The method of any one of Embodiments 29-33, wherein the first and second MAC CEs are included in the same MAC Protocol Data Unit (PDU).

Embodiment 35: The method of any one of Embodiments 29-33, wherein the first and second MAC CEs are included in a first MAC protocol data unit (PDU), and wherein the third MAC CE is included in a second MAC PDU.

Embodiment 36: A wireless terminal comprising: a transceiver configured to provide radio communication with a wireless communication network over a radio interface; and a processor coupled to the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to perform the operations of any one of embodiments 1-35.

Embodiment 37: A wireless terminal adapted to perform the operations of any one of embodiments 1-35.

Embodiment 38: A method for operating a node of a wireless communication network, the method comprising: configuring a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the node of the communication network and a wireless terminal; when the first set of component carriers are configured for the communication link, transmitting a first media access control (MAC) control element (CE) on the communication link, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of the first set of component carriers; configuring a second set of component carriers for the communication link between the node of the communication network and the wireless terminal; and when the second set of component carriers are configured, transmitting a second MAC CE on the communication link, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 39: The method of Embodiment 38, wherein communicating the first MAC CE comprises receiving a first extended power headroom (PHR) MAC CE, and wherein communicating the second MAC CE comprises receiving a second extended PHR MAC CE.

Embodiment 40: The method of Embodiment 38, wherein communicating the first MAC CE comprises communicating a first activation/deactivation MAC CE, and wherein communicating the second MAC CE comprises communicating a second activation/deactivation MAC CE.

Embodiment 41: The method of embodiment 40 further comprises: activating/deactivating each component carrier of the first group of component carriers according to the first bitmap; and activating/deactivating each component carrier of the second group of component carriers according to the second bitmap.

Embodiment 42: The method of any one of embodiments 38-41, wherein a first logical channel identifier LCID is provided for the first MAC CE, a second LCID is provided for the second MAC CE, and the first and second LCIDs are different.

Embodiment 43: The method of embodiment 42, wherein delivering a first MAC CE comprises receiving a first MAC CE and applying a bit of a first bitmap to a corresponding component carrier of a first group of component carriers in response to a first LCID, and wherein delivering a second MAC CE comprises receiving a second MAC CE and applying a bit of a second bitmap to a corresponding component carrier of a second group of component carriers in response to a second LCID.

Embodiment 44: The method of any one of embodiments 38-43, wherein a first logical channel identifier LCID is provided for the first MAC CE, a second LCID is provided for the second MAC CE, and the first and second LCIDs are the same.

Embodiment 45: The method of any one of Embodiments 38-41 and 44, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first MAC CE version indicator, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second MAC CE version indicator, and wherein the first and second MAC CE version indicators are different.

Embodiment 46: The method of Embodiment 45, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers comprises transmitting a first reconfiguration message to the wireless terminal, and wherein configuring the second set of component carriers comprises transmitting a second reconfiguration message to the wireless terminal.

Example 47: The method of Example 46 further includes: in response to transmitting a first reconfiguration message, selecting a first MAC CE version having a first bitmap size, wherein delivering the first MAC CE includes, in response to selecting the first MAC CE version, receiving a first MAC CE from a wireless terminal and decoding the first MAC CE assuming the first MAC CE version; and in response to transmitting a second reconfiguration message, selecting a second MAC CE version having a second bitmap size, wherein delivering the second MAC CE includes, in response to selecting the second MAC CE version, receiving a second MAC CE from the wireless terminal and decoding the second MAC CE assuming the second MAC CE version.

Embodiment 48: The method of embodiment 46 further includes: in response to transmitting a first reconfiguration message, selecting a first MAC CE version having a first bitmap size, wherein delivering the first MAC CE includes, in response to selecting the first MAC CE version, receiving a first MAC CE from a wireless terminal and decoding the first MAC CE assuming the first MAC CE version; and in response to transmitting a second reconfiguration message, selecting a second MAC CE version having a second bitmap size, wherein delivering the second MAC CE includes receiving a second MAC CE from the wireless terminal, decoding the second MAC CE assuming the second MAC CE version before completing the monitoring period after transmitting the second reconfiguration message in response to receiving the second MAC CE, and decoding the second MAC CE assuming the first MAC CE version.

Embodiment 49: The method of any one of Embodiments 38-41 and 44-48, wherein delivering the first MAC CE comprises delivering a first power headroom report (PHR) MAC CE comprising a first bitmap having a first bitmap size to the wireless communication network, and wherein delivering the second MAC CE comprises delivering a second PHR MAC CE comprising a second bitmap having a second bitmap size to the wireless communication network.

Embodiment 50: The method of any one of Embodiments 38-41 and 44, wherein delivering the first MAC CE comprises interpreting/generating the first MAC CE to include a first bitmap having a first bitmap size in response to a first set of component carriers configured for the communication link, and wherein delivering the second MAC CE comprises interpreting/generating the second MAC CE to include a second bitmap having a second bitmap size in response to a second set of component carriers configured for the communication link.

Embodiment 51: The method of any one of Embodiments 38-50, wherein the first set of component carriers includes no more than 8 component carriers, wherein the second set of component carriers includes more than 8 component carriers, and wherein the second bitmap size is greater than the first bitmap size.

Embodiment 52: The method of Embodiment 51, wherein the first bitmap size is no more than one octet, and the second bitmap size is more than one octet.

Embodiment 53: The method of any one of Embodiments 38-52, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a first set of secondary component carriers, wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring the primary component carrier and a second set of secondary component carriers, wherein the first set and the second set of secondary component carriers are different, wherein each of the first set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the first bitmap, and wherein each of the second set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 54: The method of any one of embodiments 38-53, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the second group exceeds a threshold, and wherein a first bitmap size of the first bitmap is greater than a second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 55: The method of any one of Embodiments 38-52, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a set of secondary component carriers, wherein each of the set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a respective bit of the first bitmap, and wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring the primary component carrier.

Embodiment 56: The method of embodiment 55, wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier without configuring any secondary component carrier for the second set.

Embodiment 57: The method of any of Embodiments 38-56 and 32-45, wherein the first bitmap is arranged in a first number of bit octets, wherein the second bitmap is arranged in a second number of bit octets, and wherein the first and second numbers of bit octets are different.

Embodiment 58: The method of any one of embodiments 38-57, wherein the number of component carriers in the first group of component carriers is greater than the number of component carriers in the second group of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is greater than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 59: The method of any one of embodiments 38-57, wherein the number of component carriers in the first group of component carriers is less than the number of component carriers in the second group of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is less than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Example 60: The method of any one of Examples 38-59, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the second group exceeds a threshold, and wherein a first bitmap size of the first bitmap is greater than a second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 61: The method of any one of Embodiments 38-60, wherein delivering the first MAC CE includes delivering the first MAC CE after configuring the first set of component carriers, wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring the second set of component carriers after delivering the first MAC CE, and wherein delivering the second MAC CE includes delivering the second MAC CE after configuring the second set of component carriers.

Embodiment 62: The method of any one of Embodiments 38-60, wherein delivering the second MAC CE includes delivering the second MAC CE after configuring the second set of component carriers, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers includes configuring the first set of component carriers after delivering the second MAC CE, and wherein delivering the first MAC CE includes delivering the first MAC CE after configuring the first set of component carriers.

Embodiment 63: A method for operating a node of a wireless communication network, the method comprising: configuring a first set of component carriers for a first communication link between the node of the communication network and a first wireless terminal; when the first set of component carriers are configured for the first communication link, transmitting a first media access control MAC control element CE on the first communication link, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein the bits of the first bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of the first set of component carriers; configuring a second set of component carriers for a second communication link between the node of the communication network and a second wireless terminal; and when the second set of component carriers are configured for the second communication link, transmitting a second MAC CE on the second communication link, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein the bits of the second bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 64: The method of embodiment 63, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a set of secondary component carriers, wherein each of the set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a respective bit of the first bitmap, and wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring the primary component carrier.

Embodiment 65: The method of embodiment 64, wherein configuring the second group of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier without configuring any secondary component carrier for the second group.

Embodiment 66: A method for operating a node of a wireless communication network, the method comprising: configuring a set of component carriers for a communication link between a wireless terminal and a node of the communication network; and when configured with the set of component carriers, transmitting a first and a second media access control MAC control element CE, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap, wherein the bits of the first bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of a first subset of the set of component carriers, and wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap, wherein the bits of the second bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of a second subset of the set of component carriers.

Embodiment 67: The method of embodiment 66, wherein the group of component carriers is a first group of component carriers, and the method further includes: configuring a second group of component carriers for a communication link between a wireless terminal and a node of a communication network, wherein the second group of component carriers is different from the first group of component carriers; and when configured with the second group of component carriers, transmitting a third MAC CE, wherein the third MAC CE includes a third bitmap, wherein the bits of the third bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of the second group of component carriers.

Embodiment 68: The method of embodiment 67, wherein configuring a first set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a set of secondary component carriers, wherein the first subset of the set of component carriers includes a first subset of the set of secondary component carriers, and wherein the second subset of the set of component carriers includes a second subset of the set of secondary component carriers.

Embodiment 69: The method of embodiment 68, wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier without configuring any secondary component carrier for the second set.

Embodiment 70: The method of embodiment 67, wherein the first, second, and third bitmaps have the same bitmap size, wherein the second set of component carriers includes a primary component carrier and a plurality of secondary component carriers, and wherein each of the plurality of secondary component carriers corresponds to one of the bits of the third bitmap.

Embodiment 71: The method of any one of Embodiments 66-70, wherein the first and second MAC CEs are included in the same MAC Protocol Data Unit (PDU).

Embodiment 72: The method of any one of Embodiments 66-70, wherein the first and second MAC CEs are included in a first MAC protocol data unit (PDU), and the third MAC CE is included in a second MAC PDU.

Embodiment 73: A node of a wireless communication network, the node comprising: a communication interface configured to provide communication with one or more wireless terminals over a radio interface; and a processor coupled to the communication interface, wherein the processor is configured to perform the operations of any one of embodiments 38-72.

Embodiment 74: A node of a wireless communication network, adapted to perform the operations of any one of embodiments 38-72.

Embodiment 75: A method for operating a wireless terminal that communicates with a wireless communication network, the method comprising: configuring a first group of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network; in response to configuring the first group of component carriers, selecting a first media access control MAC control element CE version; when configured with the first group of component carriers, delivering a first MAC CE using the first MACCE version; after delivering the first MAC CE, configuring a second group of component carriers for the communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, wherein the first group of component carriers is different from the second group of component carriers; in response to configuring the second group of component carriers, selecting a second MAC CE version different from the first MAC CE version; and when configured with the second group of component carriers, delivering a second MAC CE using the second MAC CE version.

Embodiment 76: The method of embodiment 75, wherein a first MAC CE version defines a first bitmap size of the MAC CE, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having the first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of a first set of component carriers, wherein a second MAC CE version defines a second bitmap size of the MAC CE different from the first bitmap size, and wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having the second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of a second set of component carriers.

Embodiment 77: The method as in any one of Embodiments 75-76 further includes: in response to configuring a first group of component carriers, selecting a first MAC CE version indicator, wherein the first MAC CE includes the first MAC CE version indicator; and in response to configuring a second group of component carriers, selecting a second MAC CE version indicator different from the first MAC CE version indicator, wherein the second MAC CE includes the second MAC CE version indicator.

Embodiment 78: The method of any one of Embodiments 77, wherein the first MAC CE version indicator has a first value mapped to the first MAC CE version, and wherein the second MAC CE version indicator has a second value mapped to the second MAC CE version.

Embodiment 79: The method of any of Embodiments 77, wherein selecting the second MAC CE version indicator comprises changing the first MAC CE version indicator to the second MAC CE version indicator in response to configuring the second set of component carriers.

Embodiment 80: The method of Embodiment 79, wherein the changing comprises switching a MAC CE version indicator bit from a first MAC CE version indicator value to a second MAC CE version indicator value.

Embodiment 81: The method of embodiment 80 further includes: after delivering the second MAC CE, configuring a third group of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, wherein the third group of component carriers is different from the first group of component carriers and different from the second group of component carriers; in response to configuring the third group of component carriers, selecting a third MAC CE version that is different from the first and second MAC CE versions, and the third MAC CE version indicator is different from the second MAC CE version indicator, wherein selecting the third MAC CE version indicator includes switching the MAC CE version indicator bit from the second MAC CE version indicator value to the first MAC CE version indicator value; and when configured with the third group of component carriers, delivering a third MAC CE using the third MAC CE version and including the third MAC CE version indicator.

Embodiment 82: The method of Embodiment 79, wherein the changing comprises incrementing/decrementing the MAC CE version indicator value from a first MAC CE version indicator value to a second MAC CE version indicator value.

Embodiment 83: The method of embodiment 82 further includes: after delivering the second MAC CE, configuring a third group of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, wherein the third group of component carriers is different from the second group of component carriers; in response to configuring the third group of component carriers, selecting a third MAC CE version that is different from the second MAC CE version, and the third MAC CE version indicator is different from the second MAC CE version indicator, wherein selecting the third MAC CE version includes incrementing/decrementing the MACCE version indicator bit from the second MAC CE version indicator value to the third MAC CE version indicator value; and when configured with the third group of component carriers, delivering a third MAC CE using the third MAC CE version and including the third MAC CE version indicator.

Embodiment 84: The method of any one of Embodiments 75-83, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers comprises configuring the first set of component carriers in response to receiving a first reconfiguration message from the wireless communication network, and wherein configuring the second set of component carriers comprises configuring the second set of component carriers in response to receiving a second reconfiguration message from the wireless communication network.

Embodiment 85: The method of embodiment 84 further comprises: in response to configuring the second set of component carriers, delaying sending any subsequent MAC CEs of the first and second MAC CE types including the second MAC CE until a delay period has passed and/or until a plurality of radio frames have passed.

Embodiment 86: The method of embodiment 84 further includes: in response to receiving a second reconfiguration message, transmitting a reconfiguration completion message to the wireless communication network; and in response to configuring a second set of component carriers, delaying sending any subsequent MAC CEs of the first and second MAC CE types containing the second MAC CE until confirmation of the reconfiguration completion message is received from the wireless communication network.

Embodiment 87: The method of any one of Embodiments 75-86, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE comprises transmitting a first power headroom report (PHR) MAC CE comprising a first bitmap having a first bitmap size to the wireless communication network, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE comprises transmitting a second PHR MAC CE comprising a second bitmap having a second bitmap size to the wireless communication network.

Embodiment 88: The method of any one of Embodiments 75-86, wherein a first logical channel identifier LCID is provided for the first MAC CE, a second LCID is provided for the second MAC CE, and the first and second LCIDs are the same.

Embodiment 89: A wireless terminal comprising: a transceiver configured to provide radio communication with a wireless communication network over a radio interface; and a processor coupled to the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to perform the operations of any one of embodiments 75-88.

Embodiment 90: A wireless terminal adapted to perform the operations of any one of embodiments 75-88.

Embodiment 91: A method for operating a node of a wireless communication network, the method comprising: configuring a first group of component carriers for a communication link between the node of the communication network and a wireless terminal; when the first group of component carriers are configured for the communication link, transmitting a first media access control MAC control element CE using a first MAC CE version on the communication link; after transmitting the first MAC CE, configuring a second group of component carriers for the communication link between the node of the communication network and the wireless terminal; and when the second group of component carriers are configured, transmitting a second MAC CE using a second MAC CE version different from the first MAC CE version on the communication link.

Embodiment 92: The method of embodiment 91, wherein a first MAC CE version defines a first bitmap size of the MAC CE, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having the first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of a first set of component carriers, wherein a second MAC CE version defines a second bitmap size of the MAC CE different from the first bitmap size, and wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having the second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of a second set of component carriers.

Embodiment 93: The method of any one of Embodiments 91-92, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first MAC CE version indicator, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second MAC CE version indicator, and wherein the first and second MAC CE version indicators are different.

Embodiment 94: The method of any of Embodiments 91-93, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers comprises transmitting a first reconfiguration message to the wireless terminal, and wherein configuring the second set of component carriers comprises transmitting a second reconfiguration message to the wireless terminal.

Example 95: The method of Example 94 further includes: in response to transmitting a first reconfiguration message, selecting a first MAC CE version, wherein delivering the first MAC CE includes, in response to selecting the first MAC CE version, receiving a first MAC CE from a wireless terminal and decoding the first MAC CE assuming the first MAC CE version; and in response to transmitting a second reconfiguration message, selecting a second MAC CE version, wherein delivering the second MAC CE includes, in response to selecting the second MAC CE version, receiving a second MAC CE from the wireless terminal and decoding the second MAC CE assuming the second MAC CE version.

Example 96: The method of Example 94 further includes: in response to transmitting a first reconfiguration message, selecting a first MAC CE version, wherein delivering the first MAC CE includes, in response to selecting the first MAC CE version, receiving a first MAC CE from a wireless terminal and decoding the first MAC CE assuming the first MAC CE version; and in response to transmitting a second reconfiguration message, selecting a second MAC CE version, wherein delivering the second MAC CE includes receiving a second MAC CE from the wireless terminal, decoding the second MAC CE assuming the second MAC CE version before completing the monitoring period after transmitting the second reconfiguration message in response to receiving the second MAC CE, and decoding the second MAC CE assuming the first MAC CE version.

Embodiment 97: The method of embodiment 96, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first MAC CE version indicator, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second MAC CE version indicator, wherein the first and second MAC CE version indicators are different, and wherein decoding the second MAC CE further includes one of the results of decoding the second MAC CE assuming the first and second MAC CE versions using a MAC CE indicator value based on the second MAC CE.

Embodiment 98: The method of any one of Embodiments 91-97, wherein delivering the first MAC CE comprises receiving a first power headroom report (PHR) MAC CE comprising a first bitmap having a first bitmap size to the wireless communication network, and wherein delivering the second MAC CE comprises receiving a second PHR MAC CE comprising a second bitmap having a second bitmap size to the wireless communication network.

Embodiment 99: The method of any one of embodiments 91-98, wherein a first logical channel identifier LCID is provided for the first MAC CE, a second LCID is provided for the second MAC CE, and the first and second LCIDs are the same.

Embodiment 100: A node of a wireless communication network, the node comprising: a communication interface configured to provide communication with one or more wireless terminals over a radio interface; and a processor coupled to the communication interface, wherein the processor is configured to perform the operations of any one of embodiments 91-99.

Embodiment 101: A node of a wireless communication network, adapted to perform the operations of any one of embodiments 91-99.

Embodiment 102: A wireless terminal is adapted to: configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and a communication network; when configured with the first set of component carriers, transmit a first media access control (MAC) control element (CE), wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers; configure a second set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, wherein the first set of component carriers is different from the second set of component carriers; and when configured with the second set of component carriers, transmit a second MAC CE, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 103: A node of a wireless communication network, the node adapted to: configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the node of the communication network and a wireless terminal; when configured with the first set of component carriers for the communication link, transmit a first media access control (MAC) control element (CE) on the communication link, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of the first set of component carriers; configure a second set of component carriers for the communication link between the node of the communication network and the wireless terminal; and when configured with the second set of component carriers, transmit a second MAC CE on the communication link, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to corresponding component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 104: A wireless terminal comprising: a transceiver configured to provide radio communication with a wireless communication network over a radio interface; and a processor coupled to the transceiver. The processor is configured to: configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network; when configured with the first set of component carriers, communicate a first medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) through the transceiver, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers; configure a second set of component carriers for the communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, wherein the first set of component carriers is different from the second set of component carriers; and when configured with the second set of component carriers, communicate a second MAC CE through the transceiver, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 105: A node of a wireless communication network, the node comprising: a transceiver configured to provide communication with one or more wireless terminals over a radio interface; and a processor coupled to the transceiver. The processor is configured to: configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the node of the communication network and the wireless terminal; when configured with the first set of component carriers for the communication link, communicate a first medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) over the communication link, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers; configure a second set of component carriers for the communication link between the node (BS) of the communication network and the wireless terminal; and when configured with the second set of component carriers, communicate a second MAC CE over the communication link, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 106: A wireless terminal comprising a configuration module and a communication module, wherein the configuration module is arranged to configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the wireless terminal and a communication network, the communication module is arranged to communicate a first medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) when configured with the first set of component carriers, wherein the first MAC CE comprises a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers, the configuration module is further arranged to configure a second set of component carriers for the communication link between the wireless terminal and the communication network, wherein the first set of component carriers is different from the second set of component carriers, and the communication module is further arranged to communicate a second MAC CE when configured with the second set of component carriers, wherein the second MAC CE comprises a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

Embodiment 107: A node of a wireless communication network, comprising a configuration module and a communication module, wherein the configuration module is arranged to configure a first set of component carriers for a communication link between the node of the communication network and a wireless terminal, and the communication module is arranged to transmit a first medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) on the communication link when configured with the first set of component carriers for the communication link, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bitmap having a first bitmap size, wherein bits of the first bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the first set of component carriers, the configuration module is further arranged to configure a second set of component carriers for the communication link between the node of the communication network and the wireless terminal, and the communication module is further arranged to transmit a second MAC CE on the communication link when configured with the second set of component carriers, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein bits of the second bitmap correspond to respective component carriers of the second set of component carriers, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap.

The configuration module and the communication module of the wireless terminal according to embodiment 106 may, in at least one embodiment, be implemented as a computer program running on a processor (such as the processor 303 of FIG. 13 ). While the wireless terminal according to embodiment 106 performs the process according to embodiment 1, other embodiments of wireless terminals including the configuration module and the communication module may perform the process according to any one of embodiments 2-35.

The configuration module and the communication module of the node according to embodiment 107 may, in at least one embodiment, be implemented as a computer program running on a processor (such as the processor 203 of FIG. 12 ). While the node of the wireless communication network according to embodiment 107 performs the process according to embodiment 38, other embodiments of the node including the configuration module and the communication module may perform the process according to any of embodiments 39-72.

Additionally defined:

When an element is referred to as being "connected," "coupled," "responsive" (or variations thereof) to another element, it can be directly connected, coupled, or responsive to the other element, or one or more intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly connected," "directly coupled," "directly responsive" (or variations thereof) to another element, no intervening elements are present. Similar numbers refer to similar nodes/elements throughout. Furthermore, "coupled," "connected," "responsive" (or variations thereof) as used herein may include wireless coupling, connection, or response. As used herein, the singular forms "a" or "an" and "the" are intended to also include the plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. For the sake of brevity and/or clarity, well-known functions or configurations may not be described in detail. The term "and/or," abbreviated "/," includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

As used herein, the terms "comprise," "comprising," "comprises," "include," "including," "includes," "have," "has," "having," or variations thereof are open ended and include one or more recited features, integers, nodes, steps, components, or functions, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, nodes, steps, components, functions, or groups thereof. Furthermore, as used herein, the common abbreviation "e.g.," derived from the Latin phrase "exempli gratia," may be used to introduce or specify a general example or general multiple examples of a previously mentioned item and is not intended to limit such items. The common abbreviation "i.e.," derived from the Latin phrase "id est," may be used to specify a specific item from a more general recitation.

It will be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements/operations, these elements/operations should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element/operation from another element/operation. Thus, the first element/operation in some embodiments may be referred to as the second element/operation in other embodiments without departing from the teachings of the present inventive concept. The example embodiments of aspects of the present inventive concept explained and illustrated herein include their complimentary counterparts. The same reference numerals or the same reference designators indicate the same or similar elements throughout the specification.

Example embodiments are described herein with reference to block diagrams and/or flowcharts of computer-implemented methods, apparatus (systems and/or devices), and/or computer program products. It is understood that the blocks shown in the block diagrams and/or flowcharts, and combinations of blocks shown in the block diagrams and/or flowcharts, can be implemented by computer program instructions executed by one or more computer circuits. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor circuit (also referred to as a processor) of a general-purpose computer circuit, a special-purpose computer circuit, and/or other programmable data processing circuit to produce a machine, such that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer and/or other programmable data processing device transform and control transistors, values stored in memory locations, and other hardware components within such circuits to implement the functions/actions specified in the block diagram and/or flowchart block or blocks, thereby creating components (functionality) and/or structures for implementing the functions/actions specified in the block diagram and/or flowchart blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a tangible computer-readable medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to operate in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable medium produce an article of manufacture that includes instructions for implementing the functions/actions specified in the block diagram and/or flowchart block or multiple blocks.

Tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media may include electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, or semiconductor data storage systems, devices, or apparatuses. More specific examples of computer-readable media would include the following: portable computer diskettes, random access memory (RAM) circuits, read-only memory (ROM) circuits, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory) circuits, portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), and portable digital video disc read-only memory (DVD/Blu-ray).

Computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer and/or other programmable data processing device to cause a series of operable steps to be performed on the computer and/or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, such that the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable device provide steps for implementing the functions/actions specified in the block diagram and/or flowchart block or blocks. Accordingly, embodiments of the inventive concept may be implemented in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.) running on a processor (such as a digital signal processor), which may be collectively referred to as "circuits," "modules," or variations thereof.

It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions/actions indicated in the blocks may not occur in the order indicated in the flowchart. For example, two blocks shown in succession may actually be executed substantially simultaneously, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the opposite order (depending on the functions/actions involved). Moreover, the functionality of a given block of a flowchart and/or block diagram may be divided into multiple blocks, and/or the functionality of two or more blocks of a flowchart and/or block diagram may be at least partially integrated. Finally, other blocks may be added/inserted between the blocks shown. Moreover, although some of these figures include arrows on the communication path to illustrate the initial direction of communication, it is understood that communication may occur in the direction opposite to the arrows depicted.

Many different embodiments have been disclosed herein in conjunction with the above description and accompanying drawings. It will be understood that literally describing and illustrating every combination and subcombination of these embodiments would be unduly repetitive and obfuscating. Accordingly, this specification, including the accompanying drawings, is to be construed as constituting a complete written description of various example combinations and subcombinations of the embodiments, as well as the manner and process of making and using them, and will support claims to any such combination or subcombination.

Other network elements, communication devices, and/or methods according to embodiments of the present inventive concepts will be, or become, apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the drawings and description. All such additional network elements, devices, and/or methods are intended to be included within this description and are intended to be within the scope of the present inventive concepts. Furthermore, all embodiments disclosed herein are intended to be capable of being implemented individually or combined in any manner and/or combination.

Claims (53)

1. A method for operating a wireless terminal (UE) communicating with a wireless communication network, the method comprising: Configure (1503) the first component of the quantitative carrier for the communication link between the wireless terminal (UE) and the wireless communication network; When the first component carrier is used for configuration, a first media access control (MAC) control element CE is passed (1505), wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bit map having a first bit map size, wherein the bits of the first bit map correspond to the corresponding component carriers of the first component carrier. Configure (1503) a second component carrier for the communication link between the wireless terminal (UE) and the wireless communication network, wherein the first component carrier is different from the second component carrier; and When configured using the second component carrier, a second MAC CE is passed (1505), wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein the bits of the second bitmap correspond to the corresponding component carriers of the second component carrier, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE includes transmitting a first extended power margin PHRMAC CE, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE includes transmitting a second extended PHR MAC CE. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first extended PHR MAC CE includes power margin information for each component carrier of the first component carrier. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE includes receiving a first activated/deactivated MAC CE, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE includes receiving a second activated/deactivated MAC CE. 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: In response to the first activated/deactivated MAC CE, in response to the first bitmap, each component carrier of the first component carrier is activated/deactivated (1505b”); and In response to the second activation/deactivation MAC CE, in response to the second bitmap, activate/deactivate (1505b”) each component carrier of the second component carrier. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first MAC CE is an extended power margin PHR MAC CE and the second MAC CE is an activated/deactivated MAC CE, or wherein the first MAC CE is an activated/deactivated MAC CE and the second MAC CE is an extended PHR MAC CE. 7. The method of any one of claims 1-6, wherein a first logical channel identifier (LCID) is provided for the first MAC CE, a second LCID is provided for the second MAC CE, and the first and second LCIDs are different. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE comprises: receiving the first MAC CE and applying bits of the first bitmap to a corresponding component carrier of the first component carrier in response to the first LCID, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE comprises: receiving the second MAC CE and applying bits of the second bitmap to a corresponding component carrier of the second component carrier in response to the second LCID. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein configuring the first component carrier comprises configuring a primary component carrier and a first group of secondary component carriers, wherein configuring the second component carrier comprises configuring a primary component carrier and a second group of secondary component carriers, wherein the first group and the second group of secondary component carriers are different, wherein each of the first group of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the first bitmap, and wherein each of the second group of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the second bitmap. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the second group exceeds the threshold, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is larger than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 11. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE comprises transmitting to the wireless communication network a first power headroom report PHR MAC CE comprising a first bitmap having the size of the first bitmap, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE comprises transmitting to the wireless communication network a second PHR MAC CE comprising a second bitmap having the size of the second bitmap. 12. The method of any one of claims 1-6, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE comprises interpreting/generating the first MAC CE to include a first bitmap having the first bitmap size in response to configuring the first component carrier for the communication link, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE comprises interpreting/generating the second MAC CE to include a second bitmap having the second bitmap size in response to configuring the second component carrier for the communication link. 13. The method of any one of claims 1-6 and 11, wherein the first component carrier comprises no more than 8 component carriers, wherein the second component carrier comprises more than 8 component carriers, and wherein the second bitmap size is larger than the first bitmap size. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the size of the first bitmap is no more than one octet, and the size of the second bitmap is more than one octet. 15. The method of any one of claims 1-6 and 11, wherein configuring the first component carrier comprises configuring a primary component carrier and a first group of secondary component carriers, wherein configuring the second component carrier comprises configuring a primary component carrier and a second group of secondary component carriers, wherein the first group and the second group of secondary component carriers are different, wherein each of the first group of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the first bitmap, and wherein each of the second group of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the second bitmap. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the second group exceeds the threshold, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is larger than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 17. The method of any one of claims 1-6 and 11, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the second group exceeds the threshold, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is greater than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 18. A method for operating a node (BS) in a wireless communication network, the method comprising: Configure (1703) the first component of the quantitative carrier for the communication link between the node (BS) and the wireless terminal (UE) of the wireless communication network; When the first component carrier is used to configure the communication link, a first media access control (MAC) control element CE is transmitted on the communication link (1705), wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bit map having a first bit map size, wherein the bits of the first bit map correspond to the corresponding component carriers of the first component carrier. Configure (1703) a second component carrier for the communication link between the node (BS) and the wireless terminal (UE) of the wireless communication network; and When configured using the second component carrier, a second MAC CE (1705) is transmitted on the communication link, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap having a second bitmap size, wherein the bits of the second bitmap correspond to the corresponding component carriers of the second component carrier, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE includes receiving a first extended power margin (PHR) MAC CE, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE includes receiving a second extended PHR MAC CE. 20. The method of claim 18, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE includes transmitting a first activated/deactivated MAC CE, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE includes transmitting a second activated/deactivated MAC CE. 21. The method of claim 18, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE comprises receiving from the wireless terminal (UE) a first power headroom report PHR MAC CE comprising a first bitmap having the size of the first bitmap, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE comprises receiving from the wireless terminal (UE) a second PHR MAC CE comprising a second bitmap having the size of the second bitmap. 22. The method of any one of claims 18-20, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE comprises interpreting/generating the first MAC CE to include a first bitmap having the first bitmap size in response to configuring the first component carrier for the communication link, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE comprises interpreting/generating the second MAC CE to include a second bitmap having the second bitmap size in response to configuring the second component carrier for the communication link. 23. The method of any one of claims 18-21, wherein the first component carrier comprises no more than 8 component carriers, wherein the second component carrier comprises more than 8 component carriers, and wherein the second bitmap size is larger than the first bitmap size. 24. The method of any one of claims 18-21, wherein configuring the first component carrier comprises configuring a primary component carrier and a first group of secondary component carriers, wherein configuring the second component carrier comprises configuring a primary component carrier and a second group of secondary component carriers, wherein the first group and the second group of secondary component carriers are different, wherein each of the first group of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the first bitmap, and wherein each of the second group of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the second bitmap. 25. The method of claim 24, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the second group exceeds the threshold, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is larger than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 26. The method of any one of claims 18-21, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the second group exceeds the threshold, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is greater than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 27. A wireless terminal (UE), comprising: Transceiver (301), configured to provide radio communication with a wireless communication network over a radio interface; and Processor (303), coupled to the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to: Configure the first component of the bulk carrier for the communication link between the wireless terminal (UE) and the wireless communication network; When the first component carrier is used for configuration, a first media access control (MAC) control element (CE) is transmitted through the transceiver, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bit map with a first bit map size, wherein the bits of the first bit map correspond to the corresponding component carriers of the first component carrier. Configure a second component carrier for the communication link between the wireless terminal (UE) and the wireless communication network, wherein the first component carrier is different from the second component carrier; and When configured using the second component carrier, a second MAC CE is transmitted through the transceiver, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap with a second bitmap size, wherein the bits of the second bitmap correspond to the corresponding component carriers of the second component carrier, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 28. The wireless terminal (UE) of claim 27, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE includes transmitting a first extended power margin (PHR) MAC CE, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE includes transmitting a second extended PHR MAC CE. 29. The wireless terminal (UE) of claim 28, wherein the first extended PHR MAC CE includes power margin information for each component carrier of the first component carrier. 30. The wireless terminal (UE) of claim 27, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE includes receiving a first activation/deactivation MAC CE, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE includes receiving a second activation/deactivation MAC CE. 31. The wireless terminal (UE) of claim 30, wherein the processor is further configured to: In response to the first bitmap and in response to the first activation/deactivation MAC CE, activate/deactivate each component carrier of the first component carrier; and In response to the second bitmap and the second activation/deactivation MAC CE, each component carrier of the second component carrier is activated/deactivated. 32. The wireless terminal (UE) of claim 27, wherein the first MAC CE is an Extended Power Headroom (PHR) MAC CE and the second MAC CE is an Activated/Deactivated MAC CE, or wherein the first MAC CE is an Activated/Deactivated MAC CE and the second MAC CE is an Extended PHR MAC CE. 33. The wireless terminal (UE) of any one of claims 27-32, wherein a first logical channel identifier (LCID) is provided for the first MAC CE, a second LCID is provided for the second MAC CE, and the first and second LCIDs are different. 34. The wireless terminal (UE) of claim 33, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE comprises: receiving the first MAC CE and applying bits of the first bitmap to a corresponding component carrier of the first component carrier in response to the first LCID, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE comprises: receiving the second MAC CE and applying bits of the second bitmap to a corresponding component carrier of the second component carrier in response to the second LCID. 35. The wireless terminal (UE) of claim 34, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a first set of secondary component carriers, wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a second set of secondary component carriers, wherein the first set and the second set of secondary component carriers are different, wherein each of the first set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the first bitmap, and wherein each of the second set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the second bitmap. 36. The wireless terminal (UE) of claim 35, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the second group exceeds the threshold, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is larger than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 37. The wireless terminal (UE) of claim 27, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE comprises transmitting to the wireless communication network a first power headroom report (PHR) MAC CE comprising a first bitmap having the size of the first bitmap, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE comprises transmitting to the wireless communication network a second PHR MAC CE comprising a second bitmap having the size of the second bitmap. 38. The wireless terminal (UE) of any one of claims 27-32, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE includes interpreting/generating the first MAC CE to include the first bitmap having the first bitmap size in response to configuring the first component carrier for the communication link, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE includes interpreting/generating the second MAC CE to include the second bitmap having the second bitmap size in response to configuring the second component carrier for the communication link. 39. The wireless terminal (UE) of any one of claims 27-32 and 37, wherein the first component carrier comprises no more than 8 component carriers, wherein the second component carrier comprises more than 8 component carriers, and wherein the second bitmap size is larger than the first bitmap size. 40. The wireless terminal (UE) of claim 39, wherein the first bitmap size is no more than one octet, and the second bitmap size is more than one octet. 41. The wireless terminal (UE) of any one of claims 27-32 and 37, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a first set of secondary component carriers, wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a second set of secondary component carriers, wherein the first set and the second set of secondary component carriers are different, wherein each of the first set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the first bitmap, and wherein each of the second set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the second bitmap. 42. The wireless terminal (UE) of claim 41, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the second group exceeds the threshold, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is larger than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 43. The wireless terminal (UE) of any one of claims 27-32 and 37, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the second group exceeds the threshold, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is greater than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 44. A node (BS) of a wireless communication network, the node (BS) comprising: A transceiver (201) configured to provide communication with one or more wireless terminals over a radio interface; and Processor (303), coupled to the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to: Configure the first component of the bulk carrier for the communication link between the node (BS) and the wireless terminal (UE) in the wireless communication network; When the first component carrier is used to configure the communication link, a first media access control (MAC) control element (CE) is transmitted on the communication link, wherein the first MAC CE includes a first bit map having a first bit map size, wherein the bits of the first bit map correspond to the corresponding component carriers of the first component carrier. Configure a second component of multiple carriers for the communication link between the node (BS) and the wireless terminal (UE) in the wireless communication network; and When configured using the second component carrier, a second MAC CE is transmitted on the communication link, wherein the second MAC CE includes a second bitmap with a second bitmap size, wherein the bits of the second bitmap correspond to the corresponding component carriers of the second component carrier, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is different from the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 45. The node (BS) of claim 44, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE includes receiving a first extended power margin (PHR) MAC CE, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE includes receiving a second extended PHR MAC CE. 46. The node (BS) of claim 44, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE includes transmitting a first activation/deactivation MAC CE, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE includes transmitting a second activation/deactivation MAC CE. 47. The node (BS) of claim 44, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE comprises receiving from the wireless terminal (UE) a first power headroom report PHR MAC CE comprising the first bitmap having the first bitmap size, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE comprises receiving from the wireless terminal (UE) a second PHR MAC CE comprising the second bitmap having the second bitmap size. 48. The node (BS) of any one of claims 44-46, wherein transmitting the first MAC CE includes interpreting/generating the first MAC CE to include the first bitmap having the first bitmap size in response to configuring the first component carrier for the communication link, and wherein transmitting the second MAC CE includes interpreting/generating the second MAC CE to include the second bitmap having the second bitmap size in response to configuring the second component carrier for the communication link. 49. The node (BS) of any one of claims 44-47, wherein the first component carrier comprises no more than 8 component carriers, wherein the second component carrier comprises more than 8 component carriers, and wherein the second bitmap size is larger than the first bitmap size. 50. The node (BS) of any one of claims 44-47, wherein configuring the first set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a first set of secondary component carriers, wherein configuring the second set of component carriers includes configuring a primary component carrier and a second set of secondary component carriers, wherein the first set and the second set of secondary component carriers are different, wherein each of the first set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the first bitmap, and wherein each of the second set of secondary component carriers corresponds to a corresponding bit of the second bitmap. 51. The node (BS) of claim 50, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each secondary component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the secondary component carriers of the second group exceeds the threshold, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is larger than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 52. The node (BS) of any one of claims 44-47, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the first group, wherein a corresponding component carrier index is associated with each component carrier of the second group, wherein at least one of the component carrier indices of the first group exceeds a threshold, wherein no index of the component carrier indices of the second group exceeds the threshold, and wherein the first bitmap size of the first bitmap is greater than the second bitmap size of the second bitmap. 53. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed, cause a computing device to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-26.