RU2574610C2 - Component carrier activation in communication systems using carrier aggregation - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: radio engineering, communication.

SUBSTANCE: communication method, carried out by a terminal in a communication system using carrier aggregation, includes receiving a MAC control element at a primary component carrier which includes a bit cluster indicating the activation/deactivation state of each of a secondary component carrier, which is added to the primary component carrier, which is always activated, wherein each secondary component carrier corresponds to one bit included in said bit cluster, and wherein said one bit indicates that the corresponding secondary component carrier must be activated or deactivated. Each secondary component carrier is activated or deactivated according to the received MAC control element.

EFFECT: high efficiency and reliability of activation.

20 cl, 26 dwg, 4 tbl

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to the provision of a component carrier activation (de) message that enables one or more component carriers on an uplink or downlink to be activated or deactivated. The invention further relates to the use of a new component carrier activation message (de) in methods for (de) activating a component carrier (s) of a downlink configured for a mobile terminal for a base station and a mobile terminal.

State of the art

Communication Long-Term Development Project (LTE)

Third generation (3G) mobile communication systems based on WCDMA radio access technology are widely used worldwide. The first step in improving or developing this technology involves the introduction of high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) and an advanced uplink, also referred to as high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA), which makes the radio access technology highly competitive.

To ensure readiness for further growth of user needs and the ability to compete with new 3GPP radio access technologies, a new mobile communication system, called the Long-Term Development of Communication Systems (LTE), is being introduced. LTE is designed to meet carrier needs for high-speed data and multimedia, as well as support for high-density voice channels in the next decade. The ability to provide high bit rates is a key feature of LTE.

The Work Item Specification (WI) in the LTE Project called the UMTS Enhanced Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) and UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) should be finalized in Release 8 (LTE). The LTE system introduces efficient packet radio access and radio access networks that provide full IP-based functionality with low latency and low cost. Detailed system requirements are provided. In LTE, scalable multiple transmission bands, such as 1.4, 3.0, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0 and 20.0 MHz, are specified to achieve flexible system deployment using a given spectrum. On the downlink, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) radio access is used due to its inherent multipath interference immunity (MPI) due to low symbol rate, the use of a cyclic prefix (CP) and a tendency to different transmission band arrangements. The uplink utilizes single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) radio access, since providing an extensive coverage area is preferable to increasing peak data rate given the limited transmit power of the user equipment (UE). Many fundamental packet radio access approaches are used, including multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) channel transmission techniques, and LTE (Release 8) achieves a highly efficient control signaling structure.

LTE Architecture

Figure 1 shows the architecture as a whole, and figure 2 shows a more detailed representation of the architecture of the E-UTRAN. An E-UTRAN consists of an eNodeB providing an E-UTRA user plane (PDCP / RLC / MAC / PHY), and an end of protocol (RRC) of the control plane towards the user equipment (UE). An eNodeB (eNB) is based on a physical layer (PHY), medium access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC) and packet data control (PDCP) layers, which include header compression and user plane encryption functionality. It also provides radio resource management (RRC) functionality corresponding to the control plane. It performs many functions, including radio resource administration, admission control, scheduling, adherence to uplink consistent quality of service (QoS), cell information broadcasting, encryption / decryption of user and control plane data, and compression / decompression of user plane packet headers upstream / downlink. eNodeBs are connected to each other via the X2 interface.

eNodeBs are also connected via an S1 interface to an EPC (Enhanced Packet Core), in particular to an MME (Mobility Management Node) via an S1-MME and to a Serving Gateway (SGW) via an S1-U. The S1 interface maintains a many-to-many relationship between the MME / serving gateways and the eNodeB. SGW routes and forwards user data packets, at the same time acting as a mobility anchor for the user plane during handovers between eNodeBs and as a mobility anchor between LTE and other 3GPP technologies (ending the S4 interface and relaying traffic between 2G / 3G and PDN gateway). For user equipment instances in an inactive state, the SGW is located at the end of the downlink data path and initiates a paging call when the downlink data for the user equipment arrives. It administers and saves user equipment contexts, for example, IP carrier channel service parameters, internal network routing information. It also duplicates user traffic in the event of legalized interception.

MME is the key management node for the LTE access network. He is responsible for the tracking and paging of inactive user equipment, including retransmissions. He is involved in the activation / deactivation of the carrier channel and is also responsible for the selection of SGW for the user equipment during initial connection and during handover inside LTE using relocation of the nodes of the core network (CN). He is responsible for user authentication (through interaction with HSS). Non-Access Level Alarm (NAS) terminates in the MME and is also responsible for generating and allocating temporary identifiers to user equipment instances. It verifies the authorization of user equipment to enter the service provider’s public land mobile communications network (PLMN) and enforces user roaming restrictions. The MME is the network endpoint for encrypting / protecting the integrity of NAS signaling and is responsible for administering security keys. MME also supports legalized signal capture. The MME also provides a control plane function for mobility between LTE and 2G / 3G access networks, with the SGSN connected to the S3 MME. The MME is also connected by the S6a interface to the home HSS for roaming user equipment instances.

Component Carrier Structure in LTE (Release 8)

поднесущих, что также показано на фиг.4.The LTE 3GPP downlink component carrier (Release 8) is divided in the time-frequency domain into so-called subframes. In LTE 3GPP (Release 8), each subframe is divided into two downlink slots, as shown in FIG. 3, where the first downlink slot contains a control channel region (PDCCH region) in the first OFDM symbols. Each subframe consists of a certain number of OFDM symbols in the time domain (12 or 14 OFDM symbols in LTE 3GPP (Release 8)), with each OFDM symbol occupying the entire band of the component carrier. Thus, each of the OFDM symbols consists of a certain number of modulation symbols transmitted on the respective

subcarriers, which is also shown in Fig.4.

последовательных символов OFDM во временной области и

последовательных поднесущих в частотной области, что представлено на фиг.4. В LTE 3GPP (выпуск 8), физический блок ресурсов, таким образом, состоит из

ресурсных элементов, соответствующих одному слоту во временной области и 180 кГц в частотной области (дополнительные подробности о сетке ресурсов нисходящей линии связи, см., например, 3GPP TS 36.211, “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation (Release 8)”, версия 8.9.0 или 9.0.0, раздел 6.2, доступный по адресу http://www.3gpp.org и включенный в данное описание в порядке ссылки).Assume that in a multi-carrier communication system, for example, using OFDM, which is used, for example, in the 3GPP Long-Term Development Project for Communication Systems (LTE), the smallest unit of resources that a dispatcher can assign is one “resource block”. A physical resource block is defined as

consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain and

successive subcarriers in the frequency domain, as shown in Fig.4. In LTE 3GPP (Release 8), the physical resource block thus consists of

resource elements corresponding to one slot in the time domain and 180 kHz in the frequency domain (for more details on the downlink resource grid, see, for example, 3GPP TS 36.211, “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation (Release 8) ”, version 8.9.0 or 9.0.0, section 6.2, available at http://www.3gpp.org and incorporated herein by reference).

Level 1 / Level 2 Control Alarm (L1 / L2)

To inform planned users of their allocation status, transport format, and to report other information related to the data (e.g., HARQ information, transmit power control (TPC) commands), the L1 / L2 control signaling is transmitted in a downlink with the data. L1 / L2 control signaling is multiplexed with downlink data in a subframe, assuming that user allocation may vary from subframe to subframe. It should be noted that user allocation may also be based on TTI (transmission time interval), where the TTI length is an integer number of subframes. The length of the TTI may be fixed in the service area for all users, may be different for different users, or may even be dynamic for each user. In general, the L1 / 2 control signaling needs to be transmitted only once per TTI. L1 / L2 control signaling is transmitted over the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). It should be noted that in LTE 3GPP assignments for transmissions, uplink data, also referred to as uplink scheduling grants or uplink resource assignments, are also transmitted on the PDCCH.

With respect to scheduling grants, the information transmitted in the L1 / L2 control signaling can be divided into the following two categories.

Shared Control Information (SCI) carrying Category 1 information

A part of the shared L1 / L2 control signaling control information contains information related to resource allocation (indication). Shared management information typically contains the following information:

- user identifier indicating the user (s) to whom the resources are allocated.

- RB allocation information for indicating resources (resource blocks (RB)) allocated to the user (s). The number of allocated resource blocks can be dynamic.

- duration of the assignment (optional), if it is possible to assign to multiple subframes (or TTI).

Depending on the installation of other channels and the installation of downlink control information (DCI) - see below - the shared control information may additionally contain information, for example, ACK / NACK for uplink transmission, uplink scheduling information, information about DCI (resource, MCS, etc.).

Downlink Control Information (DCI) carrying Category 2/3 Information

A portion of the downlink control information of the L1 / L2 control signaling contains information regarding a transmission format (category 2 information) of data transmitted to a scheduled user indicated by category 1 information. In addition, in the case of using (hybrid) ARQ as a retransmission protocol, category 2 information carries HARQ information (category 3). The downlink control information should be decoded only by the user scheduled according to category 1. The downlink control information typically contains the following information:

- Category 2 information: modulation scheme, transport block size (payload) or coding rate, information associated with MIMO (many inputs, many outputs), etc. Either a transport block (or payload size) or a coding rate may be signaled. In any case, these parameters can be calculated from each other using the information of the modulation scheme of resource information (the number of allocated resource blocks).

- Category 3 information: HARQ related information, such as hybrid ARQ process number, redundancy version, retransmission sequence number.

Downlink control information exists in several formats that differ in overall size and also in the information contained in its fields. The various DCI formats that are currently defined for LTE Release 8/9 (LTE 3GPP) are described in detail in 3GPP TS 36.212, “Multiplexing and channel coding (Release 9)”, version 8.8.0 or 9.0.0, section 5.3. 3.1 (available at http://www.3gpp.org and incorporated herein by reference).

Downlink and uplink data transmission

As for the downlink data transmission, the L1 / L2 control signaling is transmitted on a separate physical channel (PDCCH), together with the packet transmission of the downlink data. This L1 / L2 control signaling usually contains information about:

- the physical resource (s) on which data is transmitted (for example, subcarriers or subcarrier blocks in the case of OFDM, codes in the case of CDMA). This information allows the UE (receiver) to identify the resources on which data is transmitted.

- when the user equipment is configured to have a carrier indication field (CIF) in the L1 / L2 control signaling, this information identifies the component carrier for which specific control signaling information is intended. This allows destinations that are destined for another component carrier (“cross-carrier scheduling”) to be sent on one component carrier. This other cross-scheduled component carrier may be, for example, a component carrier without PDCCH, i.e. The cross-scheduled component carrier carries no L1 / L2 control signaling.

- The transport format used for transmission. This can be the size of the transport block data (payload size, number of information bits), MCS level (modulation and coding schemes), spectral efficiency, coding rate, etc. This information (usually in conjunction with the allocation of resources (e.g., the number of resource blocks assigned to the user equipment)) allows the user equipment (receiver) to identify the number of bits of information, the modulation scheme, and the coding rate to begin the process of demodulation, de-matching, and decoding. The modulation scheme may be signaled explicitly.

- Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) information:

▪ HARQ process number: allows user equipment to identify the hybrid ARQ process to which data is mapped.

▪ Sequence Number or New Data Indicator (NDI): Allows the user equipment to identify whether the transmission is a new packet or a retransmitted packet. If soft combining is implemented in the HARQ protocol, the serial number or new data indicator together with the HARQ process number provides soft combining of transmissions for PDUs before decoding.

▪ redundancy and / or star chart version: indicates to the user equipment which version of the hybrid ARQ redundancy is used (necessary to remove speed matching) and / or which version of the modulation star chart is used (necessary for demodulation).

- UE ID (UE ID): indicates what user equipment the L1 / L2 control signaling is intended for. In typical implementations, this information is used to mask the CRC of the L1 / L2 control signaling so that other instances of the user equipment cannot read this information.

To provide uplink packet data, the L1 / L2 control signaling is transmitted in the downlink (PDCCH) to indicate to the user equipment the transmission details. This L1 / L2 control signaling usually contains information about:

- the physical resource (s) on which the user equipment should transmit data (for example, subcarriers or subcarrier blocks in the case of OFDM, codes in the case of CDMA).

- when the user equipment is configured to have a carrier indication field (CIF) in the L1 / L2 control signaling, this information identifies the component carrier for which specific control signaling information is intended. This allows destinations that are destined for another component carrier to be sent on one component carrier. This other cross-scheduled component carrier may be, for example, a component carrier without PDCCH, i.e. The cross-scheduled component carrier carries no L1 / L2 control signaling.

- L1 / L2 control signaling for uplink grants is sent on a DL component carrier that is associated with an uplink component carrier, or on one of several DL component carriers if several DL component carriers are associated with the same UL component carrier.

- The transport format that user equipment should use for transmission. This can be the size of the transport block data (payload size, number of information bits), MCS level (modulation and coding schemes), spectral efficiency, coding rate, etc. This information (usually in conjunction with resource allocation (e.g., the number of resource blocks assigned to user equipment)) allows the user equipment (transmitter) to select the number of bits of information, the modulation scheme, and the coding rate to start the modulation, rate matching, and coding process. In some cases, the modulation scheme can be signaled explicitly.

- hybrid ARQ information:

▪ HARQ process number: indicates to the user equipment from which hybrid ARQ process the data should be sampled.

▪ serial number or indicator of new data: tells the user equipment to transmit a new packet or retransmit a packet. If soft combining is implemented in the HARQ protocol, the serial number or new data indicator, together with the HARQ process number, provides soft combining of transmissions for the protocol data unit (PDU) before decoding.

▪ redundancy and / or star chart version: tells the user equipment which version of the hybrid ARQ redundancy to use (necessary for speed matching) and / or which version of the modulation star chart to use (necessary for modulation).

- UE ID (UE ID): indicates which user equipment should transmit data. In typical implementations, this information is used to mask the CRC of the L1 / L2 control signaling so that other instances of the user equipment cannot read this information.

There are several different options for how to transmit the above pieces of information in the transmission of data uplink and downlink. In addition, on the uplink and downlink, the L1 / L2 control information may also contain additional information or may pass some information. For example:

- the HARQ process number may not be required, i.e. do not signal in case of synchronous HARQ protocol,

- a version of the redundancy and / or star chart may not be required and thus not be signaled if a traced combination is used (always the same version of the redundancy and / or star chart), or if a sequence of versions of the redundancy and / or star chart is predefined ,

- power control information may be further included in the control signaling,

- control information related to MIMO, such as precoding, may be further included in the control signaling,

- in the case of transmitting MIMO with multiple codewords, the transport format and / or HARQ information for multiple codewords may be included.

For uplink resource assignments (on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), signaled on a PDCCH in LTE), the L1 / L2 control information does not contain the HARQ process number, since the synchronous HARQ protocol is used for uplink LTE. The HARQ process to be used for uplink transmission is timing. In addition, it should be noted that redundancy version (RV) information is encoded together with transport format information, i.e. RV information is embedded in a transport format (TF) field. The transport format (TF) field, respectively, of the modulation and coding scheme (MCS), has a size of, for example, 5 bits, which corresponds to 32 entries. The 3 TF / MCS table entries are reserved to indicate redundancy (RV) versions 1, 2, or 3. The remaining MCS table entries are used to signal the MCS level (TBS) implicitly indicating RV0. The CRC PDCCH field size is 16 bits.

For downlink assignments (PDSCHs) signaled on a PDCCH in LTE, the redundancy version (RV) is signaled separately in a two-bit field. In addition, modulation order information is encoded together with transport format information. By analogy with the uplink case, there is a 5-bit MCS field signaled by PDCCH. 3 records are reserved for signaling an explicit modulation order, without providing transport format information (transport block). For the remaining 29 entries, modulation order and transport block size information is signaled.

Downlink Physical Control Channel (PDCCH)

The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries the L1 / L2 control signaling, i.e. transmit power control and scheduling provision commands for allocating resources for transmitting downlink or uplink data. More specifically, the downlink control channel information (i.e., the DCI content, respectively, the L1 / L2 control signaling information) is mapped to the corresponding physical channel, PDCCH. This “mapping” includes determining a CRC application for downlink control channel information, which is a CRC calculated on downlink control channel information masked by RNTI, which will be explained in more detail below. The downlink control channel information and its CRC application are then transmitted over the PDCCH (see 3GPP TS 36.212, sections 4.2 and 5.3.3).

Each scheduling grant is defined based on the elements of a control channel (CCE). Each CCE corresponds to a set of resource elements (RE). In LTE 3GPP, one CCE consists of 9 resource element groups (REGs), where one REG consists of four REs.

The PDCCH is transmitted in the first one to three OFDM symbols in a subframe. In order to provide a downlink on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), the PDCCH assigns a PDSCH resource for (user) data in the same subframe. The area of the PDCCH control channel in the subframe consists of a set of CCEs, where the total number of CCEs in the control area of the subframe is distributed over a time and frequency control resource. Multiple CCEs can be combined to effectively reduce the control channel coding rate. CCEs are combined in a predetermined manner using a tree structure to achieve a different coding rate.

In LTE 3GPP (8/9 release), the PDCCH can aggregate 1, 2, 4, or 8 CCEs. The number of CCEs available for assigning a control channel is a function of several factors, including carrier band, number of transmit antennas, number of OFDM symbols used for control, and CCE size, etc. Multiple PDCCHs may be transmitted in a subframe.

The downlink control channel information in the form of a DCI transports downlink or uplink scheduling information, requests aperiodic CQI reports or uplink power control commands for one RNTI (Radio Network Terminal Identifier). RNTI is a unique identifier commonly used in 3GPP systems, such as LTE 3GPP (8/9 release), to assign data or information to specific user equipment. RNTI is implicitly included in the PDCCH by masking the CRC calculated on DCI using RNTI - the result of this operation is the aforementioned CRC application. On the user equipment side, in case of successful decoding of the data payload size, the user equipment identifies the DCI intended for the user equipment by checking the success of the CRC on the decoded payload data using the “unmasked” CRC (ie, after masking using RNTI). The CRC code is masked, for example, by scrambling the CRC using RNTI.

The following different DCI formats are defined in LTE 3GPP (Release 8):

- uplink DCI formats :

▪ format 0 used for transmitting SCH UL assignments

▪ format 3 is used to transmit TPC commands for PUCCH and PUSCH with 2-bit power adjustments (addressing of multiple UEs)

▪ 3A format is used to transmit TPC commands for PUCCH and PUSCH with one-bit power adjustments (addressing of multiple UEs)

- Downlink DCI Formats :

▪ format 1 used for transmitting SCH DL assignments for SIMO mode

▪ 1A format used for compact transfer of SCH DL assignments for SIMO mode

▪ 1B format used to support closed-loop peer-to-peer transmission with possibly continuous resource allocation

▪ 1C format for downlink transmission of paging, RACH response, and BCCH dynamic scheduling

▪ 1D format is used for compact scheduling of one PDSCH codeword with precoding and power offset information

▪ format 2 is used to transmit SCH DL assignments for closed-loop MIMO mode

▪ 2A format is used to transmit SCH DL assignments for open-loop MIMO mode.

For more information on the structure of physical downlink LTE channels and the PDSCH and PDCCH format, see Stefania Sesia et al., “LTE - The UMTS Long Term Evolution”, Wiley & Sons Ltd., ISBN 978-0-47069716-0, April 2009, sections 6 and 9.

PDCCH blind decoding on user equipment

In LTE 3GPP (8/9 release), user equipment attempts to detect DCI in the PDCCH using so-called “blind decoding” (sometimes also called “blind detection”). This means that there is no associated control signaling that indicates the CCE aggregation size or the modulation and coding scheme for PDCCHs signaled on the downlink, but the user equipment checks for all possible combinations of CCE aggregation sizes and modulation and coding schemes and confirms the success of the PDCCH decoding based on the RNTI. To further limit complexity, a common and special search space is defined in the LTE component carrier control signaling area in which the user equipment searches for the PDCCH.

In LTE 3GPP (8/9 release), the PDCCH payload size is recorded in one blind decoding attempt. The user equipment attempts to decode two different payload sizes for any configured transmission mode, as indicated in Table 1 below. Table 1 shows that the payload size X of the DCI formats 0, 1A, 3, and 3A is the same regardless of the configuration of the transmission modes. The payload size of the other DCI format depends on the transmission mode.

Table 1 DCI formats payload size X payload size other than X Transmission mode 0 / 1A / 3 / 3A 1C broadcast / single addressing / paging / power control one mode 1 TX DL modes one mode 2 2A mode 3 2 mode 4 1B mode 5 1D mode 6 one mode 7 one mode 1 SPS modes one mode 2 2A mode 3 2 mode 4 one mode 7

Accordingly, the user equipment may check, in a first blind decoding attempt, the DCI payload size. In addition, the user equipment is further configured to search for only a given subset of DCI formats to avoid processing requirements that are too high.

Medium Access Control (MAC) Layer

The MAC layer is one of the layer 2 sublevels in the 3GPP LTE radio protocol stack. The MAC layer (de) multiplexes between logical channels and transport channels by creating / destroying MAC PDUs (protocol data units), also known as transport units. MAC PDUs are created from MAC SDUs (service data units) received on one or more logical channels on a transmitter. On the receiver side, the MAC PDUs are restored from the received MAC PDUs.

A transport block (MAC PDU) consists of a header and a payload. In addition to the MAC SDU, the payload may consist of MAC controls and padding.

MAC controls

MAC peer-to-peer signaling uses MAC (CE) controls. The MAC controls can form part of the payload of the MAC PDUs as described above and are identified by a special logical channel ID (LCID) in the MAC header.

There are several types of CE MAC. Some of them are included only in uplink transport blocks for signaling from user equipment to the eNodeB, others are included only in downlink transport blocks for signaling from eNodeB to user equipment. The specific LCIDs and associated downlink MAC controls are listed in Table 2.

table 2 LCID value MAC control used to 11100 Conflict Resolution Identification Between UEs 11101 timing advance commands 11110 DRX teams

The specific LCIDs and corresponding uplink MAC controls are listed in Table 3.

Table 3 LCID value MAC control used to 11010 power headroom report 11011 C-RNTI 11100 Truncated Buffer Status Report (BSR) 11101 short bsr 11110 long bsr

Sounding Reference Signals (SRS)

Sensing reference signals are sent on the uplink. Together with the demodulation reference signals (DM RS), they are included in the uplink to provide channel estimates for coherent demodulation, as well as channel quality estimates for uplink scheduling.

While DM RSs are associated with uplink data transmission, SRSs are not associated with data transmission and are mainly used for channel quality estimation to provide frequency selective scheduling through eNodeB scheduling. In addition, SRS can be used to improve power control or to support the eNodeB in deciding on an initial modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for transmitting data. Once configured with higher layer signaling, SRSs are transmitted in the last SC-FDMA symbol of the uplink subframe. The subframe in which the user equipment should transmit SRS is indicated by the cell-specific broadcast signaling and is selected from a set of 15 possible subframes in the radio frame. Data transmission on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) is not allowed in a subframe intended for SRS transmission, resulting in an SRS overhead of 7% when all possible subframes are configured for SRS transmission. As mentioned above, SRS configuration is performed by the eNodeB using higher layer signaling. In this case, the configuration determines, among other parameters, the duration and frequency of the SRS.

Additional enhancements for LTE (LTE-A)

The frequency spectrum for IMT-Advanced was determined at the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07). Although the full frequency spectrum for IMT-Advanced has been determined, the actually available frequency band varies by region or country. However, in accordance with the principal agreement on the available frequency spectrum, work on the standardization of the radio interface was launched as part of the third generation partnership project (3GPP). At the 3GPP TSG RAN # 39 meeting, the study item description on “Advanced Enhancements for E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced)” was approved by 3GPP. The research element covers the technology components to be considered for the development of E-UTRA, for example, to meet the requirements of IMT-Advanced. The two main technology components currently under consideration for LTE-A are described below.

LTE-A carrier aggregation to support wider bandwidth

In carrier aggregation (CA), two or more component carriers (CC) are aggregated to support wider transmission bands of up to 100 MHz. All component carriers can be configured for compatibility with LTE release. 8/9, at least when the aggregated numbers of component carriers on the uplink and the downlink are the same. This does not necessarily mean that all component carriers must be compatible with LTE 3GPP (8/9 release).

The user equipment may simultaneously receive or transmit on one or multiple component carriers. How many component carriers can receive / transmit at the same time depends on the capabilities of the user equipment.

LTE 3GPP compatible user equipment (8/9 release) can only receive and transmit on one CC provided that the CC structure complies with LTE 3GPP specifications (8/9 release), while LTE-A 3GPP compatible user equipment (Issue 10), with receiving and / or transmitting capabilities for carrier aggregation, can simultaneously receive and / or transmit on multiple component carriers.

Carrier aggregation is supported for both adjacent and non-adjacent component carriers, with each component carrier being limited to a maximum of 110 resource blocks in the frequency domain using LTE 3GPP numerology (8/9 release).

LTE-A 3GPP compatible user equipment (Release 10) can be configured to aggregate a different number of component carriers originating from the same eNodeB (base station) and possibly different bands on the uplink and downlink. In typical TDD configurations, the number of component carriers and the band of each component carrier on the uplink and downlink are the same. Component carriers originating from the same eNodeB are not required to provide the same coverage area.

The separation between the center frequencies of the sequentially aggregated component carriers should be a multiple of 300 kHz. This is done for compatibility with the 100 kHz frequency raster according to vol. 8/9 and, at the same time, preserve the orthogonality of the subcarriers with a spacing of 15 kHz. Depending on the aggregation scenario, n × 300 kHz spacing can be facilitated by inserting a small number of unused subcarriers between adjacent component carriers.

The nature of multicarrier aggregation is open only to the MAC level. The uplink and downlink require one HARQ entity in the MAC for each aggregated component carrier. There is (in the absence of SU-MIMO for the uplink) no more than one transport block for each component carrier. The transport block and its potential HARQ retransmissions must be mapped onto the same component carrier.

The Layer 2 structure with activated carrier aggregation is shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 for the downlink and uplink, respectively.

When carrier aggregation is configured, the user equipment has only one radio resource control (RRC) connection to the network. One cell — a “dedicated cell” —provides secure entry and no-mobility layer (NAS) information (eg, TAI). In connection mode, there is only one special cell for each instance of user equipment.

After establishing an RRC connection with a special cell, reconfiguration, addition and removal of component carriers can be carried out by RRC When performing handover within LTE, the RRC can also add, remove, or reconfigure component carriers for use in the target cell. When adding a new component carrier, special RRC signaling is used to transmit component carrier system information, which is necessary for transmitting / receiving on a component carrier, similar to handover in LTE 3GPP (Release 8/9).

When the user equipment is configured with carrier aggregation, there is one pair of uplink and downlink component carriers that are always activated. The downlink component carrier of this pair may also be referred to as a DL anchor carrier. The same applies for the uplink.

When carrier aggregation is configured, the user equipment can be simultaneously dispatched for multiple component carriers, but at any time, no more than one random access procedure can be performed. Cross-carrier scheduling allows a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a component carrier to dispatch resources on another component carrier. For this purpose, the component carrier identification field is entered in the corresponding DCI formats.

The relationship between the component carriers of the uplink and the downlink allows the identification of the component carrier of the uplink for which the provision is applied in the absence of cross-carrier scheduling.

The binding of the downlink component carriers to the uplink component carriers is not necessarily one-to-one. In other words, more than one downlink component carrier may be associated with an uplink component carrier. A downlink component carrier may be associated with only one uplink component carrier at a time. FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 approximately illustrate possible relationships between downlink and uplink component carriers. Although in FIG. 7 all downlink component carriers are associated with the same uplink component carrier, in FIG. 8, downlink component carriers 1 and 2 are associated with an uplink component carrier and a downlink component carrier 3 The communication is associated with the component carrier 2 of the uplink.

DRX and carrier aggregation

To ensure reasonable battery consumption for LTE 3GPP user equipment (Release 8/9), as well as LTE-A 3GPP (Release 10), the principle of discontinuous reception (DRX) is provided.

According to this principle, the following terms describe the state of the user equipment in relation to DRX:

- On Duration: The amount of time expressed in downlink subframes during which the user equipment, exiting the DRX state, waits for a PDCCH to be received. If the user equipment successfully decodes the PDCCH, the user equipment remains in this state and starts the inactivity timer;

- Inactivity timer: the amount of time expressed in downlink subframes during which the user equipment waits for the successful decoding of the PDCCH after the last successful decoding of the PDCCH, and if not, it returns to DRX. The user equipment should restart the inactivity timer after a single successful decoding of the PDCCH only for the first transmission (i.e., not for retransmissions).

- Activity Time: The total time period during which the user equipment is active. It includes the “on-time” of the DRX cycle, the time when the user equipment is continuously receiving until the inactivity timer has expired, and the time when the user equipment is continuously receiving, waiting for the retransmission of the downlink after one RTT (double transit time) ) HARQ. Based on the foregoing, the minimum time of activity is equal to the duration of the inclusion and the maximum is not defined (infinite).

There is only one DRX cycle for each instance of user equipment. All aggregated component carriers follow this DRX schedule.

To provide further optimization of battery saving, an additional stage of activation / deactivation of component carriers is provided. Essentially, a downlink component carrier can be in one of the following three states: unconfigured, configured, but deactivated, and active. When the downlink component carrier is configured but deactivated, the user equipment does not need to receive the corresponding PDCCH or PDSCH, or perform CQI measurements. In contrast, when the downlink component carrier is active, the user equipment should receive PDSCH and PDCCH (if present) and it is expected that it should be able to perform CQI measurements. After the component carriers are configured to receive PDCCH and PDSCH on the downlink component as described above, the downlink component carrier should transition from the configured but deactivated to the active state.

However, on the uplink, the user equipment should always be able to transmit the PUSCH on any configured uplink component carrier, being scheduled on the corresponding PDCCH (i.e., in the absence of explicit activation of the uplink component carriers).

In order to save power on user equipment, it is important that additional component carriers can be deactivated and activated efficiently and quickly. In the case of pulsed data transmission, additional component carriers must certainly be quickly activated and deactivated so that both advantages of high bit rates can be used and battery saving can be supported. As described above, user equipment instances will not perform CQI measurements and report them on configured but deactivated downlink component carriers, but will only perform measurements related to radio resource administration, for example, RSRP (received reference signal strength) and RSRQ ( quality of the received reference signal). Therefore, when activating a downlink component carrier, it is important that the eNodeB quickly obtain CQI information for the newly activated component (s) carrier (s) in order to be able to select the appropriate MCS for efficient downlink scheduling. In the absence of information, the CQI eNodeB does not know the state of the downlink channel of the user equipment and can only select a sufficiently conservative MCS to transmit downlink data, which, in turn, will lead to somewhat inefficient resource consumption.

To quickly receive CQI information, the eNodeB can dispatch aperiodic CQI by providing uplink scheduling. Aperiodic CQI will be transmitted on the physical shared channel uplink communication (PUSCH). Therefore, to activate the configured downlink component carrier, the eNodeB will need to provide essentially two grants (PDCCHs) to the UE, one downlink PDCCH to indicate the activation of the downlink component carrier and one uplink PDCCH that schedules uplink resources for transmission of aperiodic CQI. In addition, both PDCCHs need to be sent so that they are respectively received in the same TTI in order to ensure that the user equipment measures and reports CQI information for the correct downlink component carrier, i.e. the downlink component carrier to be activated.

The correct reception of the aperiodic CQI can serve as an acknowledgment for the downlink activation command, i.e., in the case of receiving the aperiodic CQI, the eNodeB assumes that the user equipment has activated the downlink component carrier indicated in the downlink PDCCH.

Obviously, the main drawback of the above method for activating a component carrier is that two PDCCHs are required to activate a downlink component carrier. In addition, since two PDCCHs need to be received / sent simultaneously, certain errors may occur if there is a loss of PDCCHs.

In the event that only the “activation” downlink PDCCH is lost, the user equipment will not activate the downlink component carrier. However, based on the received information, the CQI eNB erroneously assumes that the downlink activation was successful.

The second error occurs if only the uplink PDCCH that requests the aperiodic CQI is lost, as a result of which the eNodeB does not receive the CQI and erroneously assumes that the downlink activation has failed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One object of the invention is to overcome at least one of the problems described. In addition, another object of the invention is to provide efficient and reliable (de) activation of component carriers.

The problem is solved by the subject of independent claims. Preferred embodiments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims.

A first aspect of the invention provides a signaling format for transmitting a component carrier activation message (de) to control the activation state of at least one component carrier. The proposed format contains the identifier of the intended recipient of the message (de) activation of the component carrier, for example, by including the identifier (ID) of the mobile terminal. This mobile terminal ID (also referred to as the UE ID) may, for example, be explicitly signaled in the component carrier activation message field (de). Due to the fact that the component carrier activation message (de) indicates the intended recipient for the component carrier activation message (CR), which is calculated based on the component carrier activation message (de), it is not possible to scramble using a temporary radio network identifier specific to the component carrier or characteristic of the honeycomb. As will be described in more detail below, the advantage is to reduce the number of temporary radio network identifiers (the total number of which is limited by the number of bits spent on a temporary radio network identifier) compared to a solution where a temporary radio network identifier for (de) activating a component carrier is assigned to mobile terminals for each the mobile terminal separately.

In addition, the component carrier activation (de) message format can be regarded as a new downlink control channel information format that is mapped to the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). Therefore, the temporary radio network identifiers used, characteristic of the component carrier or characteristic of the cell, indicate that the information format of the downlink control channel is a component carrier activation message (de). In addition, in the case of using the temporary radio network identifier (s) characteristic of the component carrier that is associated with the corresponding component carrier, the temporary network identifier (s) characteristic of ) for the carrier also indicates (s) the component carrier to be activated or deactivated. Therefore, the component carrier activation message (de) as well as the CRC application (i.e., the CRC for the component carrier activation message (de) scrambled using this temporary radio network identifier) indicate the activation status of the component carriers to the mobile terminal, i.e. indicate which of them is subject to (de) activation.

Another, second aspect of the invention provides a mechanism for (de) activating downlink component carriers configured by a mobile terminal via a (de) activating component carrier message that is transmitted on a physical downlink shared channel as part of a transport block. According to this aspect of the invention, the component carrier activation message (de) contains activation information (de) that indicates, for the respective downlink component carriers configured by the mobile terminal, the activation status of the respective component carriers. Thus, the mobile terminal can recognize a change in the activation state of the corresponding downlink component carriers and can activate and deactivate them accordingly. In one exemplary implementation, activation information (de) for component carriers may be provided in a MAC control, i.e. via MAC signaling.

In addition, also in accordance with this second aspect of the invention, activation information (de) can be provided in the form of a bitmap, the individual bits of which indicate the activation status of the corresponding configured downlink component carrier associated with the corresponding bitmap bit.

It should be noted that, in accordance with the first and second aspects of the invention, in cases where there is a downlink component carrier configured for a mobile terminal that is always active, activation information (de) is not needed to indicate activation status for such “always active” “Component carrier” - the “always active” component downlink carrier is also referred to herein as the primary component downlink carrier (PCC).

An additional aspect of the invention provides for the initiation of signaling of the reference sounding signals (SRS) on the uplink. To this end, an SRS activation message (de) is defined that reuses different structures and mechanisms for transmitting a component carrier activation message (de) according to the various embodiments described herein. For example, the SRS activation message (de) may also contain SRS activation information (de) that indicated the activation status of the SRS transmission for uplink component carriers configured for the mobile terminal. This SRS activation information (de) may be provided in the form of a bitmap, the individual bits of which indicate activation status signaling SRS on the corresponding configured uplink component carrier associated with the corresponding bitmap bit. It should be noted that, alternatively, the bitmap bits in the (de) SRS activation message can also be considered associated with the corresponding configured downlink component carriers, and the logical values of the individual bits of the bitmap indicate the activation status of the SRS signaling on the uplink component carrier associated with the corresponding downlink component carrier associated with a given bit in a bitmap. The SRS activation message (de) may be signaled as part of a transport block on a physical uplink shared channel or may be signaled as a new downlink control channel information format that is mapped to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), as described here in in accordance with the first aspect of the invention.

In addition, SRS activation information (de) can also be sent together with activation information (de) to activate / deactivate the configured downlink component carriers in a single message. For example, SRS activation information (de) and component carrier activation information (de) may be signaled in a single MAC control as part of the transport block of the physical downlink shared channel, or may be signaled together in a new format of the downlink control channel information, which mapped to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) as described herein in accordance with a first aspect of the invention.

According to one exemplary embodiment of the invention, there is provided a method for (de) activating configured component carriers in a communication system using component carrier aggregation. According to this method, the mobile terminal receives, on a physical downlink shared channel, a transport block containing a component carrier activation message (de). The component carrier activation message (de) contains (de) activation information in the form of a bitmap consisting of a certain number of bits. Each of the bits of the bitmap is associated with a respective one of the configured downlink component carriers, the logical value of each bit indicating whether the associated downlink component carrier is to be activated or deactivated. In addition, the mobile terminal activates or deactivates the configured component carriers according to information (de) activation obtained from the message (de) activation of the component carrier.

In one exemplary implementation according to another embodiment of the invention, the component carrier activation message (de) is a MAC control.

Optionally, the component carrier activation message (de) may be multiplexed into the transport block together with other logical channel data to be transmitted to the mobile terminal.

In another embodiment, one of a plurality of configured downlink component carriers is a primary downlink component carrier. This primary component carrier cannot be activated or deactivated via a component carrier activation message (de). Accordingly, the information (de) activation message (de) activation of the component carrier is not required to contain an indication of the activation status of the primary component carrier of the mobile terminal.

In one exemplary implementation, the base station may provide that a transport block comprising a component carrier activation message (de) is received by a mobile terminal on a primary downlink component carrier of a mobile terminal.

Optionally, the component carrier activation message (de) may further comprise SRS information allowing the base station to request the mobile terminal to start sending a sounding reference signal (SRS) to at least one of the uplink component carriers correspondingly associated with the configured downlink component carriers. In a more detailed implementation, SRS information is provided in the form of a bitmap consisting of a certain number of bits. Each of the bits of the bitmap in the SRS information is associated with a respective one of the uplink component carriers, and the logical value of each bit of the bitmap indicates whether the SRS should be transmitted on the associated uplink component carrier by the mobile terminal.

Another embodiment of the invention provides a method for (de) activating configured component carriers in a communication system using component carrier aggregation. According to this method, the mobile terminal receives the subframe from the base station and performs blind decoding in the control signaling area on one of the configured downlink component carriers in the received subframe to receive the component carrier activation message (de) and its CRC application. The component carrier activation message (de) and its CRC application may be regarded as a PDCCH. The CRC application contains CRC messages for (de) component carrier activation, wherein the CRC is scrambled using a temporary radio network identifier (RNTI) specific to the component carrier or cell specific used to signal the activation status of the target component (s) carrier (s) .

The mobile terminal checks the CRC of the CRC application using a temporary radio network identifier specific to a component carrier or specific to a radio cell. This can be realized, for example, by means of the CRC descrambling performed on the mobile terminal using a temporary radio network identifier characteristic of a component carrier or characteristic of a radio cell, and then comparing the resulting descrambled CRC with a locally generated CRC from the received and decoded downlink control channel information (without CRC).

In case of coincidence, i.e. if the CRC passes the check, the mobile terminal determines the identifier of the mobile terminal (for example, the UE or RNTI ID specific to the mobile terminal) from the component carrier activation message (de). Based on the identifier of the mobile terminal, the mobile terminal checks if the component carrier activation message (de) is intended for the mobile terminal. If the component carrier activation message (de) is intended for the mobile terminal, the mobile terminal activates or deactivates the configured component carriers according to the activation information (de) obtained from the component carrier activation message (de) and / or implicitly set to use a temporary radio network identifier for scrambling the CRC application .

In addition, according to another embodiment of the invention, another method (de) of activating the configured component carriers in a communication system using component carrier aggregation is applied. According to this method, the base station transmits a subframe to a mobile terminal. The subframe contains, in the area of control signaling on one of the configured downlink component carriers, a component carrier activation message (de) and its CRC application (i.e., PDCCH). The component carrier activation message (de) indicates at least the identifier of the mobile terminal for addressing the message to its intended receiver (mobile terminal). A CRC application contains a CRC of a component carrier activation (de) message that was computed on a component carrier activation message (de) by a base station processor and then scrambled using a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) specific to the component carrier or cell specific used for signaling the activation status of the target component (s) of the carrier (s).

In a further embodiment of the invention, the component carrier activation message (de) indicates which of the plurality of configured downlink component carriers to be activated and, accordingly, deactivated. Therefore, in this embodiment of the invention, an indication of the configured component carrier to be (de) activated may be contained in the carrier indication field of the component carrier activation message (de).

In addition, in another exemplary embodiment, the state of the specified component carrier is implicitly set to use RNTI to scramble the CRC. In this embodiment, there may be two temporary radio network identifiers specific to the radio cell used to signal the activation state of the downlink component carriers. One of the temporary radio network identifiers indicates the activation of at least one of the configured downlink component carriers indicated in the component carrier activation message (de), and another temporary radio network identifier indicates the deactivation of at least one of the configured downlink component carriers communication specified in the message (de) activation of the component carrier.

In an alternative implementation according to another embodiment of the invention, the component carrier to be (de) activated is implicitly set to use RNTI to scramble the CRC. In this embodiment, it can be assumed that each configured downlink component carrier is associated with a temporary radio network identifier specific to the component carrier. The temporary radio network identifier specific to the component carrier used to scramble the CRC thus implicitly indicates at least the configured downlink component carrier to be activated or deactivated.

In a variation of this embodiment, the component carrier activation message (de) indicates whether the configured downlink component carrier to be activated or deactivated associated with a temporary radio network identifier characteristic of the component carrier used to scramble the CRC is to be activated or deactivated.

In a further variation of this embodiment, each configured downlink component carrier may be associated with two temporary radio network identifiers specific to the component carrier, and a temporary radio network identifier specific to the component carrier used for scrambling the CRC indicates at least a configured downlink component carrier, and whether it is to be activated or deactivated. Therefore, in this variation, the indication of the component carrier and its activation state are implicitly set to use RNTI to scramble the CRC.

In another embodiment of the invention, the component carrier activation message (de) comprises an activation flag that asks the mobile terminal to activate and, accordingly, deactivate said configured downlink component carrier.

In one further exemplary embodiment, a component carrier activation message (de) received in a subframe control signaling area is received on a primary downlink component carrier of a mobile terminal.

In another embodiment of the invention, the activation of the downlink component carrier initiates the transmission of power headroom report by the mobile terminal for the uplink component carrier associated with the activated downlink component carrier. For example, a mobile terminal may transmit, in response to activation of a downlink component carrier, a power headroom report for an uplink component carrier associated with an activated downlink component carrier. The power headroom report is transmitted by the mobile terminal on the associated uplink component carrier on resources assigned on the associated uplink component carrier assigned to the mobile terminal by the next uplink resource assignment for the associated uplink component carrier.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the mobile terminal deactivates said component carrier when the component carrier activation message (de) indicates deactivation of the downlink component carrier. However, this deactivation is not carried out immediately, but

- after the HARQ protocol used to transmit the transport blocks acknowledges the successful decoding of the transport block awaiting transmission on the downlink component carrier to be deactivated at the time of receipt of the component carrier activation message (de), or

- upon reaching the maximum number of HARQ retransmissions for a transport block awaiting transmission on a downlink component carrier to be deactivated.

In this context, a transport block awaiting transmission refers to one or more transport blocks transmitted in individual HARQ processes on a downlink component carrier to be deactivated and currently being transmitted (pending retransmission of the transport block) at the time of receiving the command deactivations for a downlink component carrier.

In addition, or alternatively, according to another embodiment of the invention, the component carrier activation message (de) comprises an SRS flag, which, when installed, requests the mobile terminal to start sending a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the uplink component carrier associated with said configured downlink component carrier. Optionally, the SRS flag, if not set, may request the mobile terminal to stop sending the sounding reference signal (SRS) on the uplink component carrier associated with the configured configured downlink component carrier.

In addition to at least one of the activation flag and the SRS flag, or alternatively, the component carrier activation message (de) according to a further embodiment of the invention comprises a CQI request flag, which, when set, requests channel quality feedback for one or more of these configured downlink component carriers.

In a variation of this embodiment, in the case of requesting the mobile terminal to send channel quality feedback for the indicated downlink component carrier, the mobile terminal measures the channel quality for each downlink component carrier indicated by the component carrier activation message (de), and transmits feedback on channel quality for one or more of these downlink component carriers to a base station.

Channel quality feedback may, for example, be transmitted on preconfigured uplink resources on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or, alternatively, on physical uplink resources the uplink control channel (PUCCH) configured by the RRC for periodic channel quality feedback.

In one exemplary implementation, channel quality feedback is transmitted after 4 subframes or 4 ms after receiving a subframe containing a component carrier activation message (de).

In the above examples, channel quality feedback may be aperiodic channel quality feedback. Additionally or alternatively, initiating such aperiodic channel quality feedback or alternatively, the CQI flag can be used to initiate the start of sending periodic channel quality feedback from the mobile terminal. Accordingly, in case of requesting the mobile terminal to send feedback on the channel quality for the indicated downlink component carrier, the mobile terminal may periodically measure the channel quality for each downlink component carrier indicated by the component carrier activation message (de), and may periodically transmit feedback on channel quality for one or more of these downlink component carriers to a base station on resources oskhodyaschey link, such as the physical control channel uplink, configured by RRC to periodically feedback the channel quality.

In addition, in order not to increase the number of blind decoding attempts at the mobile terminal to determine the format of the control channel information signaled by the PDCCH of the received subframe, in another embodiment of the invention, the component carrier activation (de) message format (which can be thought of as DCI format) has the same size (number of bits), as at least one other format of the downlink control information specified in the mobile communication system. For example, when implementing the invention in an LTE-A 3GPP system (release 10) or its subsequent variants, the component carrier activation message (de) may be the same size as DCI 0 / 1A formats in LTE 3GPP (release 8/9) or LTE -A 3GPP (release 10). In addition, the size of the message format (de) activation of the component carrier may, optionally, depend on the band of the component carrier. The component carrier band may be, for example, a component carrier band, the activation state of which is signaled by a component carrier activation message (de) and / or its CRC application, or a component carrier band, on which a component carrier activation message is signaled.

In another embodiment, the reception of a component carrier activation message (de) is acknowledged by the mobile terminal. This can be realized, for example, by uplink ACK / NACK signaling at a given timing regarding the transmission of a component carrier activation message (de). Alternatively, an acknowledgment may also be sent in the form of feedback on the quality of the channel on the indicated component (s) downlink carrier (s). This latter option may be useful, for example, if the CQI flag in the (de) component carrier activation message initiates channel quality feedback from the mobile terminal.

An additional aspect of the invention provides for the implementation of various methods for (de) activating configured component carriers in a communication system using component carrier aggregation, hardware and / or software. In this regard, various devices are provided that implement or participate in the implementation of such methods.

One embodiment of the invention thus provides a mobile terminal for (de) activating configured component carriers in a communication system using component carrier aggregation. The mobile terminal contains a receiver for receiving on the physical shared channel the downlink of the transport block containing the message (de) activation of the component carrier, and the message (de) activation of the component carrier contains information (de) activation indicating which (s) of the many configured downlink component carriers to be activated and, accordingly, deactivated by the mobile terminal, and a processor for activating or deactivating the configured component carriers x According to the (de) activation obtained from the message (de) activate the component carrier.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the invention, the mobile terminal is configured to / comprises means for implementing a method for (de) activating configured component carriers in a communication system using component carrier aggregation according to one of the various embodiments described here, where a component carrier activation message (de) is sent as part of a transport block on a physical downlink shared channel.

Another embodiment of the invention provides a mobile terminal for use in a communication system using component carrier aggregation. The mobile terminal comprises a receiver for receiving a subframe from the base station and processing means for performing blind decoding in the control signaling area on one of the configured downlink component carriers in the received subframe to receive a component carrier activation message (de) and its CRC application, wherein the CRC application contains the CRC messages (de) activation of the component carrier, and the CRC is scrambled using a temporary radio network identifier (RNTI) characteristic of the component carrier or characteristic of the cell used for signaling the activation state of the target (s) component (s), carrier (s). Blind decoding may also involve, for example, a decoder and demodulator of a mobile terminal.

The mobile terminal processor also checks the CRC of the CRC application using a temporary radio network identifier specific to a component carrier or specific to a radio cell. As mentioned above, this CRC check can be performed, for example, by descrambling the CRC of the CRC application using a temporary radio network identifier specific for the component carrier or characteristic of the radio cell, and then comparing the descrambled CRC with the CRC (locally) generated by the mobile terminal processor from the received and a decoded downlink control channel.

In case of coincidence, i.e. when the CRC passes the check, the mobile terminal determines the identifier of the mobile terminal from the component carrier activation message (de). In addition, the processor checks, based on the identifier of the mobile terminal, whether the component carrier activation message (de) is intended for the mobile terminal. Accordingly, the mobile terminal can activate or deactivate the configured component carriers according to information (de) activation obtained from the message (de) activation of the component carrier and / or implicitly set to use a temporary radio network identifier to scramble the CRC application if the message (de) activation of the component carrier Designed for mobile terminal.

In another embodiment, a base station is provided for (de) activating configured component carriers of a mobile terminal in a communication system using component carrier aggregation. The base station comprises a processor for generating a component carrier activation message (de) containing at least the identifier of the mobile terminal of said mobile terminal. The processor also determines the CRC for the component carrier activation message (de) and scrambles the CRC using a temporary radio network identifier (RNTI) specific to the component carrier or cell specific used to signal the activation status of the target component carrier (s) to thereby receive the application CRC message (de) activation of the component carrier. In addition, the base station also includes a transmitter for transmitting the component carrier activation message (de) and its CRC application in the area of downlink component carrier control signaling in the subframe to the mobile terminal.

The invention also relates to the implementation of methods for (de) activating configured component carriers in a communication system using component carrier aggregation as described herein by software. Therefore, one additional embodiment of the invention provides a computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a mobile terminal, instruct the mobile terminal to (de) activate configured component carriers in a communication system using component carrier aggregation by receiving a downlink on a physical shared channel communication lines of the transport block containing the message (de) activation of the component carrier, and the message (de) activation co the component carrier contains activation information (de) indicating which of the plurality of configured downlink component carriers is to be activated and, accordingly, deactivated by the mobile terminal, and activated or deactivated configured component carriers according to the activation information (de), received from the component carrier activation message (de).

An additional embodiment of the invention relates to a computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a mobile terminal, instruct the mobile terminal to perform one of various methods for (de) activating configured component carriers in a communication system using component carrier aggregation. In one example, a mobile terminal may be instructed, for example, to receive a subframe from a base station and perform blind decoding in a control signaling area on one of the configured downlink component carriers in a received subframe to receive a component carrier activation message (de) and its CRC application . The CRC application contains CRC messages for (de) component carrier activation, wherein the CRC is scrambled using a temporary radio network identifier (RNTI) specific to the component carrier or cell specific used to signal the activation status of the target component (s) carrier (s) .

The instructions being followed may also instruct the mobile terminal to check the CRC of the CRC application using a temporary radio network identifier specific to a component carrier or specific to a radio cell. In the case where the CRC passes the check, the mobile terminal is instructed to determine the identifier of the mobile terminal (for example, a UE or RNTI ID specific to the mobile terminal) from the component carrier activation message (de). In addition, the instructions executed by the processor of the mobile terminal instruct the mobile terminal to check, based on the identifier of the mobile terminal, whether the component carrier activation message (de) is intended for the mobile terminal and if the component carrier activation message (de) is intended for the mobile terminal to activate or deactivate the configured component carriers according to information (de) activation received from the message (de) activation of the component carrier and / or implicitly specified for use providing a temporary radio network identifier for scrambling the CRC application.

Another embodiment therefore relates to a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor of a base station, instructs the base station to perform one of various methods for (de) activating configured component carriers in a communication system using component carrier aggregation. In one example, the base station may be instructed, for example, to generate a component carrier activation message (de) containing at least the identifier of the mobile terminal. Execution of instructions by the base station processor may further require the base station to determine a CRC for the component carrier activation message (de) and scramble the CRC using a temporary radio network identifier (RNTI) specific to the component carrier or cell specific used to signal the activation status of the target (s) component carrier (s) to thereby receive a CRC application message (de) activation of the component carrier. In addition, the execution of instructions by the processor of the base station may also instruct it to transmit the component carrier activation message (de) and its CRC application in the area of downlink component carrier control signaling in the subframe to the mobile terminal.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention is further described in more detail with reference to the accompanying figures and drawings. Similar or corresponding parts in the figures are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Figure 1 shows an exemplary LTE 3GPP system architecture,

2 shows an exemplary overview of the overall E-UTRAN architecture for LTE 3GPP,

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary subframe structure on a downlink component carrier defined for 3GPP LTE (8/9 release),

4 shows an exemplary downlink resource grid of a downlink slot specified for LTE 3GPP (Release 8/9),

5 and 6 show the LTE-A 3GPP Layer 2 structure (Release 10) with activated carrier aggregation for the downlink and uplink, respectively,

7 and 8 show exemplary communications between downlink and uplink component carriers in LTE-A 3GPP (Release 10),

Fig.9 approximately demonstrates the dependence of the size of the message (de) activation of the component carrier from the band of the component carrier according to a variant embodiment of the invention and in connection with the DCI format 0 / 1A,

10-19 show different message formats for (de) activating a component carrier according to various embodiments of the invention,

FIGS. 20-23 show various exemplary scenarios associated with acknowledging a component carrier activation message (de) and initiating a CQI report transmission from a mobile terminal in accordance with various embodiments of the invention,

24 shows a MAC control element according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention for simultaneously (de) activating one or more downlink component carriers and (de) activating SRS transmissions on one or more (connected) uplink component carriers of the user equipment, and

25 and 26 show different message formats for (de) activating a component carrier according to various embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following paragraphs various embodiments of the invention will be described. For exemplary purposes only, most embodiments are described in connection with an orthogonal radio access scheme on a single uplink carrier according to the LTE 3GPP (Release 8) and LTE-A (Release 10) mobile communication systems discussed above in the Background section. It should be noted that the invention can be advantageously used, for example, in connection with a mobile communication system, for example, the previously described communication systems LTE 3GPP (release 8) and LTE-A (release 10), but the invention is not limited to use in this particular example communication network.

The explanations given in the Background section above are intended to provide a deeper understanding of the exemplary embodiments described herein, mainly related to LTE 3GPP (Release 8) and LTE-A (Release 10), and are not intended to limit the invention to the described specific implementations. processes and functions in a mobile network.

One possible implementation for indicating a downlink component carrier to be activated involves the use of a CIF field in downlink DCI formats for LTE-A 3GPP (Release 10). In the case where the CIF field indicates a configured but deactivated downlink component carrier, this downlink component carrier is activated. However, this approach cannot be used directly to deactivate a component carrier. In addition, the CIF field may not be a mandatory part of DCI formats.

Another solution for (de) activating configured downlink component carriers is to use a mechanism similar to activating and deactivating LTE 3GPP partially stable scheduling (SPS) (8/9 release). Each user equipment instance is assigned a UE-specific RNTI (SPS-C-RNTI). In the case where the CRC DCI is scrambled using SPS-C-RNTI, this DCI is interpreted as an activation or deactivation message. This mechanism can also be used to activate and deactivate downlink component carriers. However, its drawback may be that for each instance of user equipment for which carrier aggregation is configured, a new separate RNTI will be required. Since the total number of RNTIs is limited to 65536, many of them are necessary for purposes not related to carrier aggregation (for example, C-RNTI, SPS-C-RNTI, etc.), and the number of instances of user equipment during carrier activation should support a large peak amount, it would be preferable to find other methods that do not impose such a requirement.

Another solution for (de) activating configured downlink component carriers, and in accordance with a first aspect of the invention, an alarm format is provided for transmitting a (de) activation message of a component carrier to control the activation state of at least one component carrier. The proposed new format for a component carrier activation (de) message allows you to explicitly identify the intended recipient of a component carrier activation message (de). For example, this identification can be implemented by including the identifier (ID) of the mobile terminal in the component carrier activation message (de). This mobile terminal ID (also referred to as the UE ID) is signaled, for example, in the mobile terminal identifier field of a component carrier activation message (de). In one exemplary implementation, the mobile terminal ID indicated in the component carrier activation message (de) is an identifier specific to a mobile terminal, for example, a C-RNTI of a mobile terminal.

Since the component carrier activation message (de) indicates the intended recipient for the component carrier activation message (de), it is no longer necessary to uniquely identify the intended recipient of the component carrier activation message by scrambling the CRC of the component carrier activation message using the identifier specific to the mobile terminal. The message format (de) activation of the component carrier can be considered as the format of the control information downlink (DCI). At the physical layer, the component carrier activation message (de) is downlink control channel information that is mapped to the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for transmission to the mobile terminal.

In accordance with the first aspect of the invention, the CRC is calculated based on the message (de) activation of the component carrier and scrambled at the base station. Scrambling is performed at the base station using a temporary radio network identifier characteristic of a component carrier or characteristic of a cell. As indicated above, this can significantly reduce the number of temporary radio network identifiers that need to be reserved to control the state of (de) activation of configured component carriers.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the component carrier activation (de) message format can be considered as a new downlink control channel information format that is mapped to the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). Temporary radio network identifiers characteristic of a component carrier or characteristic of a cell used to scramble a CRC message of (de) activating a component carrier, thus indicating the format of the downlink control channel information, which is a message (de) activating a component carrier.

In addition, in the case of using the temporary radio network identifier (s) characteristic of the component carrier that is associated with the corresponding component carrier, the temporary network identifier (s) characteristic of ) for the carrier also indicates (s) the component carrier to be activated or deactivated. Therefore, the component carrier activation message (de) as well as the CRC application (i.e., the CRC for the component carrier activation message (de) scrambled using this temporary radio network identifier) indicate to the mobile terminal the desired component carrier activation state, i.e. indicate which of them is subject to (de) activation.

An additional solution for (de) activating configured downlink component carriers and in accordance with a second aspect of the invention, a (de) activating component carrier message is provided in a transport block on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). Thus, the transport block is transmitted by (part of) the scheduled transmission on the PDSCH to the mobile terminal. The component carrier activation message (de) may be multiplexed with other logical channel data into a transport block. In addition, a component carrier activation message (de) may optionally be assigned a logical channel identifier (LCID).

Similar to the solutions in accordance with the first aspect of the invention, the component carrier activation message (de) contains activation information (de) that indicates, for the respective downlink component carriers configured by the mobile terminal, the activation status of the respective component carriers, and which allows the mobile terminal recognize a change in the activation state of the corresponding downlink component carriers. The detection of such an activation state change for one or more downlink component carriers will instruct the mobile terminal to activate or deactivate the activated (configured) downlink component carrier (s), respectively. In one exemplary implementation, activation information (de) for component carriers may be provided in a MAC control, i.e. via MAC signaling.

In addition, also in accordance with this second aspect of the invention, activation information (de) can be provided in the form of a bitmap. The individual bits of the bitmap indicate the activation status of the corresponding configured downlink component carrier associated with the corresponding bitmap bit.

An additional aspect of the invention provides for the initiation of signaling of the reference sounding signals (SRS) on the uplink. This can be done through an individual signaling message or in conjunction with (de) activation of configured component carriers. In the case of using an individual alarm message, an SRS activation message can be set (de). This SRS activation message (de) can reuse different structures and mechanisms for transmitting a component carrier activation message (de) according to the various embodiments described herein. For example, the SRS activation message (de) may contain SRS activation information (de) that indicated the activation status of the SRS transmission for uplink component carriers configured for the mobile terminal.

This SRS activation information (de) can be structured similarly to the component carrier activation information (de). For example, SRS activation information (de) may be provided in the form of a bitmap. The individual bits of this bitmap may indicate activation status SRS signaling on the corresponding configured uplink component carrier associated with the corresponding bitmap bit. Alternatively, the bitmap bits in the SRS activation message (de) can also be considered associated with the respective configured downlink component carriers, and the logical values of the individual bits of the bitmap indicate the activation status of the SRS signaling on the uplink component carrier associated with the corresponding downlink component carrier the communication line associated with a given bit in the bitmap.

The SRS activation message (de) may be signaled as part of a transport block on a physical uplink shared channel, as described herein according to an embodiment in accordance with a second aspect of this invention), or may be signaled as a new downlink control channel information format, which mapped to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) as described herein according to an embodiment in accordance with a first aspect of the invention.

In addition, SRS activation information (de) can also be sent together with activation information (de) to activate / deactivate the configured downlink component carriers in a single message. In one exemplary embodiment of the invention, SRS activation information (de) and component carrier activation information (de) are signaled in the MAC control as part of the transport block of the physical downlink shared channel. In a further exemplary embodiment, SRS activation information (de) and component carrier activation information (de) are signaled together in a new downlink control channel information format, which is mapped to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), as described herein in accordance with the first aspect of the invention.

It should be noted that the principles of (de) activating the component carrier can be applied to activate and deactivate the component carriers of the downlink and uplink. In this regard, it should also be noted that in exemplary embodiments and implementations of the invention it is assumed that the following three states of activation of a component carrier can be set: unconfigured, configured, but deactivated, and active. In addition, it is also important to note that in cases where a downlink component carrier (and / or uplink) that is always active is configured for the mobile terminal, activation information (de) is not needed to indicate the activation status for such “always active” component carrier - the “always active” component carrier is also referred to here as the primary component carrier (PCC).

Roughly considering downlink component carriers, when the downlink component carrier is configured but deactivated, the user equipment needs neither to receive the corresponding PDCCH or PDSCH nor to perform CQI measurements. In contrast, when the downlink component carrier is active, the user equipment should receive PDSCH and PDCCH (if present), and it is expected that it should be able to perform CQI measurements. After the component carrier (s) are configured, they (they) are / are in a configured but deactivated state. In order to receive PDCCH and PDSCH on a downlink component carrier, the downlink component carrier must transition from a configured but deactivated state to an active state. The configuration of a component carrier may alternatively implicitly or explicitly activate the component carrier, in which case the component carrier should transition from an active (“configured and active”) state to a configured but deactivated state to save resources and / or processing signaling.

When an uplink component carrier is configured and activated, it is assumed to be suitable for transmitting signals and channels, for example, ACK / NACK, sounding reference symbols, scheduling request, and periodic CQI reports. In contrast, when the downlink component carrier is in a configured but deactivated state, it is assumed that the uplink component carrier is completely suppressed and unsuitable for transmitting uplink signals and channels, for example, of the above.

Thus, the new proposed (de) activation of a component carrier according to various embodiments described herein can be used to indicate transitions between a configured but deactivated state and an active state (“configured and activated”).

As described above, one aspect of the invention provides a new component carrier activation message (de) for (de) activating one or more of the uplink or downlink component carriers. According to one embodiment of the invention related to the implementation of the concepts of this invention in a 3GPP based system using downlink and / or uplink carrier aggregation, the format for the new component carrier activation message (de) is DCI format. The new component carrier activation message (de) contains at least the ID of the target UE, for example, the C-RNTI of the user equipment to which the new component carrier activation message (de) is intended. Furthermore, in the case where the component carrier (s) to which the new component carrier activation message (s) relates is not implicitly specified to use RNTI to scramble the CRC of the new message (s) ) activation of the component carrier, the new message (de) activation of the component carrier further comprises an ID of the target component carrier. An example of a component carrier activation message (de) according to one embodiment of the invention, including a CQI request flag, is shown in FIG. The remaining bits available in the component carrier activation message (de) can be used to signal additional information or request a mobile terminal, as will be discussed below, or they can be filled in or may be reserved bits.

битов при условии, что на восходящей/нисходящей линии связи существует одна всегда активная компонентная несущая, так называемая несущая-якорь, которую невозможно активировать/деактивировать с помощью этого сообщения, и где

- количество сконфигурированных компонентных несущих восходящей/нисходящей линии связи, и

- предельная функция, т.е. наименьшее целое число, большее или равное

. Следовательно, для типичного сценария нисходящей линии связи можно предположить, что существует до

сконфигурированных компонентных несущих нисходящей линии связи, одна из которых задана как несущая-якорь, так что для ID целевой компонентной несущей в сообщении (де)активации компонентной несущей требуется всего 2 бита.This ID of the target component carrier may be signaled, for example, in the field of a new component carrier activation message (de), which has a size

bits, provided that on the uplink / downlink there is one always active component carrier, the so-called anchor carrier, which cannot be activated / deactivated with this message, and where

- the number of configured uplink / downlink component carriers, and

is the limit function, i.e. smallest integer greater than or equal to

. Therefore, for a typical downlink scenario, it can be assumed that there are up to

configured downlink component carriers, one of which is defined as an anchor carrier, so that only 2 bits are required for the component ID carrier in the component carrier activation message (de).

In addition, according to a further aspect and an embodiment of the invention, user equipment RNTIs are not used to scramble the CRC for the component carrier activation message (de) when displaying the component carrier activation message (de) as downlink control channel information in the PDCCH . This is made possible because the ID of the target UE is part of the payload of the component carrier activation message (de). In contrast, the RNTI used for signaling messages associated with (de) component carrier activation, for example, component carrier carrier (de) activation messages, is either a cell specific RNTI or a component carrier RNTI.

If a cell specific RNTI is used for CRC scrambling, which is set to signal messages related to (de) component carrier activation, for example, component carrier carrier activation message (de), then the payload of the component carrier activation message (de) further includes information which component carrier to apply the (de) activation command to. To this end, the component carrier activation message (de) may comprise one or more target component carrier IDs to indicate one or more component carriers on the downlink or uplink to be activated or deactivated. The base station may indicate a cell-specific RNTI for (de) activating the component carrier to the mobile terminal via RRC signaling, for example, as part of a component carrier configuration message.

In the case where one or all of the component carriers indicated in the message (de) activation of the component carrier should be activated (or simultaneously) or deactivated, the message (de) activation of the component carrier may contain an additional activation / deactivation flag to indicate whether one or more component carriers should be bearing activation or deactivation. Another example of a component carrier activation (de) message according to a further embodiment of the invention, including multiple target component carrier IDs and a single activation / deactivation flag, is shown in FIG. 11.

In an alternative implementation according to a further embodiment, the component carrier activation message (de) comprises an activation / deactivation flag for each target component carrier ID indicated in the target component carrier ID. Thus, the base station may direct the mobile terminal to individually activate or deactivate the respective component carrier (s) indicated by the target component carrier ID. It should be noted that, depending on the definition, the ID of the target component carrier and the corresponding activation / deactivation flag can be set by two fields of the message (de) activation of the component carrier, or these two types of information are provided in a single signaling field activation / deactivation of the component carrier. An example of a component carrier activation (de) message according to one embodiment of the invention, including multiple target component carrier IDs and activation / deactivation flags, is shown in FIG.

In addition, in another embodiment of the invention, there are two cell-specific RNTIs defined for signaling messages related to (de) activation of component carriers, for example, messages (de) activation of component carriers. In this case, one of the two RNTIs (activation RNTIs) can be used to indicate the activation of the component carrier (s) indicated by one or more target component carrier IDs in the component carrier activation message (s). Similarly, the other of the two RNTIs (Deactivation RNTIs) may be used to indicate the deactivation of the component carrier (s) indicated by one or more target component carrier IDs in the component carrier activation message (de). Therefore, in this exemplary implementation, the payload does not require any additional flag to activate / deactivate the message (de) activation of the component carrier. The base station may indicate activation RNTI and deactivation RNTI for (de) activating the component carrier and their corresponding function (activation / deactivation) to the mobile terminal by means of RRC signaling, for example, as part of a component carrier configuration message. An example of a component carrier activation (de) message according to an embodiment of the invention, including an ID of the target component carrier, but not activation / deactivation flags, is shown in FIG. 13.

битов, где

- количество сконфигурированных компонентных несущих восходящей/нисходящей линии связи. Если существует

сконфигурированных компонентных несущих, битовая маска имеет размер 4 бита. Следует отметить, что требуется только

битов, если предположить, что для мобильного терминала в режиме соединения на восходящей и нисходящей линии связи всегда существует одна активная компонентная несущая нисходящей линии связи. Каждый из битов в битовой маске связан с соответствующей сконфигурированной компонентной несущей на восходящей/нисходящей линии связи. Логическое значение 1 для бита битовой маски может указывать сконфигурированную компонентную несущую нисходящей линии связи, ассоциированную с битом, как активную, тогда как логическое значение 0 бита битовой маски может указывать соответствующую сконфигурированную компонентную несущую нисходящей линии связи, ассоциированную с битом, как сконфигурированную, но деактивированную (или наоборот). Использование сообщения (де)активации согласно этому варианту осуществления изобретения имеет преимущество в том, что единичная полезная нагрузка DCI может активировать и деактивировать одновременно несколько компонентных несущих.In another embodiment, one or two cell-specific RNTIs may be used as described above. Instead of specifying the individual component carrier to be activated by the ID of the target component carrier (and using the appropriate activation / deactivation flags), a bit mask is signaled in the (de) activation of the component carrier to indicate the activation status of each configured uplink / downlink component carrier. An example of a (de) component carrier activation message for (de) activation of uplink / downlink component carriers is shown in FIG. The bit mask is contained in the CC bit mask field. Bit mask consists of

bits where

- number of configured uplink / downlink component carriers. If exists

configured component carriers, the bitmask is 4 bits in size. It should be noted that only

bits, assuming that for the mobile terminal in the uplink and downlink connection mode, there is always one active downlink component carrier. Each of the bits in the bitmask is associated with a corresponding configured uplink / downlink component carrier. A logical value of 1 for the bit mask bit may indicate the configured downlink component carrier associated with the bit as active, while a logical value of 0 bits of the bit mask may indicate the corresponding configured downlink component carrier associated with the bit as configured but deactivated (or vice versa). The use of an (de) activation message according to this embodiment of the invention has the advantage that a single DCI payload can activate and deactivate several component carriers simultaneously.

The association between the corresponding association between the bits of the bitmask (or code points of the bitmask field) and the component carrier can be configured, for example, for each higher level configuration message, such as RRC, of the mobile terminal.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, a component carrier specific RNTI is used to scramble the CRC. In this embodiment, each of the configured downlink or uplink component carriers is assigned a specific RNTI. Component carrier-specific RNTIs can also be defined for each cell, which makes it possible to consider them as a cell-specific RNTI subclass. It should be noted that the anchor carrier may also be assigned an RNTI specific to the component carrier, since different mobile terminals may have different carrier anchors in a cell controlled by a base station.

The mobile terminal may be informed by the base station of the correspondence between the RNTI of the component carriers and the component carriers. Compliance information may be signaled, for example, to a mobile terminal via RRC signaling, for example, as part of a component carrier configuration message. One advantage of using the RNTI characteristic of the component carrier is that the mobile node, not configured to track the RNTI characteristic of the component carrier, to (de) activate the component carriers cannot erroneously activate the component carrier in case of a damaged DCI message. In addition, in addition to the RNTI characteristic of the component carrier, the ID of the target UE in the activation message (de) must also coincide, which reduces the likelihood of false (de) activation of the component carrier.

In this case, the component carrier specific RNTI used by the base station to scramble the CRC message of the (de) component carrier activation already indicates to the mobile terminal the component carrier to which the command (de) activate the message (de) component carrier activation. Therefore, in this case, the component carrier activation message (de) may not include the target component carrier ID. However, the component carrier activation message (de) may include an activation / deactivation flag for indicating an activation state set for the component carrier indicated by the RNTI specific to the component carrier. In an example of a component carrier activation message (de) according to an embodiment of the invention, an activation / deactivation flag for a downlink component carrier implicitly set to use the component carrier specific RNTI for CRC scrambling is shown in FIG. 14.

In another alternative embodiment, there are two component carrier-specific RNTIs defined for each component carrier for scrambling CRC messages associated with (de) activating the component carrier, for example, the proposed component carrier activation message (de). By analogy with the above example, one of the two RNTIs characteristic of a component carrier (RNTI activation) indicates the need to activate a component carrier associated with the RNTIs characteristic of a component carrier, while the other of the two RNTIs characteristic of a component carrier (RNTI deactivation) , indicates the need to deactivate the component carrier associated with the RNTI characteristic of the component carrier. Thus, a component carrier activation message (de) may only be necessary for signaling the UE ID to target the message associated with the component carrier activation (de) activation to the appropriate recipient (user equipment), while the component carrier to be activated (de) is implicitly specified to use RNTI to scramble the CRC message associated with (de) activation of the component carrier. It should also be noted that in this case, the base station may indicate the correspondence of RNTI activation and RNTI deactivation for different component carriers by means of RRC signaling, for example, as part of a component carrier configuration message. An example of a component carrier activation message (de) according to an embodiment of the invention, containing only the ID of the target UE and, optionally, additional information and request (advanced use), is shown in FIG.

Regardless of whether cell-specific or component-carrier-specific RNTIs are used, these RNTIs may be signaled to mobile terminals by means of RRC signaling or other means of sending control information related to the carrier aggregation mode. In particular, when configuring a terminal for which the component carrier (s) should be considered as “configured”, the mobile terminal also receives a notification about which RNTI to use for one or more of these configured component carriers.

In addition, in a 3GPP based system using OFDM on the downlink, it can be assumed that the component carrier activation message (de) generates a payload (DCI) for the PDCCH transmitted in the subframe on the downlink component carrier for one or more instances of user equipment, and instances of user equipment perform blind decoding on different DCI formats signaled in a subframe on the PDCCH. Using the same size as that of at least one other DCI format specified in the communication system for the component carrier activation message (de), and using the implicit format thereof by means of RNTI characteristic of the cell or characteristic (s) ) for a component carrier, an increase in the number of blind decoding attempts at the mobile terminal can be avoided.

Since, therefore, it is assumed that the message format of the (de) component carrier activation has a given size, the remaining bits are not needed for signaling the UE ID, and the component carrier activation information (de) associated, for example, with the target component carrier ID and the flag ( ami) activation, can be used, for example, to signal additional information or request mobile terminals. It should be noted that in the various examples described above, explaining how to use the RNTI, characteristic (s) for a cell or characteristic (s) for a component carrier, it is possible to avoid signaling the ID of the target component carrier and / or the activation / deactivation flag (s), which allows to minimize (or even reduce to zero) the size of the information associated with (de) activation of the component carrier. In addition, the size of the message format (de) activation of the component carrier can be either constant (fixed), or may depend on the band of the component carrier, for example, the band (de) activated component carrier, the band of the component carrier on the downlink on which the message is signaled ( de) activating a component carrier, or an associated uplink component carrier for a downlink on which a component carrier activation message (de) is signaled.

In one exemplary implementation, the size of the component carrier activation message (de) is the same as the size of DCI 0 / 1A formats in LTE 3GPP (Release 8/9) or LTE-A 3GPP (Release 10). The size of the format may optionally depend on the band of the component carrier.

In this context, Table 4 illustrates the sizes of the 0 / 1A d LTE 3GPP formats (Release 8/9) (as is known from 3GPP TS 36.212, mentioned here previously) depending on the component carrier band:

Table 4 System Band [MHz] DCI 0 / 1A format size in FDD [bits] DCI format size 0 / 1A in TDD [bits] 1.4 21 23 3 22 25 5 25 27 10 27 29th fifteen 27 thirty twenty 28 31

If these 0 / 1A formats are added to the CIF field as specified in LTE-A 3GPP (Release 10), the size of the 0 / 1A formats in LTE-A 3GPP (Release 10) has three additional bits to account for the CIF field.

битов. Каждый флаг активации/деактивации требует одного дополнительного бита.Therefore, as appears from the various examples above, the minimum information that needs to be signaled in the component carrier activation message (de) is the ID of the target UE to identify the intended recipient of the component carrier activation message (de). If the target UE ID is the C-RNTI of the intended user equipment, this means that 16 bits are required for the target UE ID. Each target component carrier ID is additionally required

bits. Each activation / deactivation flag requires one additional bit.

сконфигурированных компонентных несущих, из которых

необходимо указывать в поле ID целевой компонентной несущей (несущая-якорь всегда находится в активном состоянии), и что нужно сигнализировать только состояние активации для одной компонентной несущей, можно заключить, что полезная нагрузка DCI сообщения (де)активации компонентной несущей требует 16 битов для RNTI, характерного для соты (ID целевого UE), 2 бита для указания целевой компонентной несущей (ID целевой компонентной несущей) один бит флага активации/деактивации (флага (De)Act), что в целом составляет 19 битов. Следовательно, предполагая, что наименьшая полоса компонентной несущей составляет 1.4 МГц, по меньшей мере, два "дополнительных" бита доступно для дальнейшего использования. Если можно упразднить активацию/флаг благодаря использованию двух RNTI, характерных для соты, для идентификации формата DCI и состояния активации, даже три дополнительных бита останутся неиспользованными для наименьшей полосы компонентной несущей 1.4 МГц.For example, if one single cell-specific RNTI is used to identify the DCI format, assuming that there is

configured component carriers, of which

you must specify in the ID field of the target component carrier (the anchor carrier is always active), and that only the activation state for one component carrier needs to be signaled, we can conclude that the payload of the DCI message (de) activating the component carrier requires 16 bits for RNTI characteristic of the cell (target UE ID), 2 bits to indicate the target component carrier (target component carrier ID) one bit of the activation / deactivation flag (flag (De) Act), which is a total of 19 bits. Therefore, assuming that the smallest component carrier band is 1.4 MHz, at least two “extra” bits are available for future use. If activation / flag can be eliminated by using two cell-specific RNTIs to identify the DCI format and activation status, even three additional bits will remain unused for the smallest component band of the 1.4 MHz component carrier.

In another embodiment of the invention and in accordance with a second aspect of the invention, a component carrier activation message (de) is provided in a transport block on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). For example, the component carrier activation message (de) may be a MAC signaling message for activating and deactivating downlink component carriers. In one exemplary implementation, a component carrier activation message (de) is provided in the form of a new MAC control identified by a specific LCID. This new MAC control carries activation information (de) indicating which configured component component (s) of the downlink of the mobile terminal to activate and / or deactivate.

The MAC control for the message (de) activation of the component carrier can be aligned in octets, i.e. contain a set of 8 bits (1 byte). In fact, the size of the MAC control for (de) activating the component carrier can be determined by the number of downlink component carriers that can be configured in the user equipment. If an always active primary component carrier is provided, such as in the LTE-A 3GPP system (Release 10), this number of downlink component carriers is equal to the number of secondary component carriers that can be configured in the user equipment.

In one exemplary embodiment, the activation information (de) in the component carrier activation message (de) is provided in the form of a bitmap. Each bit of a bitmap represents an activation / deactivation flag for one of the downlink component carriers (or secondary component carriers if a primary component carrier is provided). For example, a bit set to 0 may mean that the corresponding component carrier is to be deactivated, and a bit set to 1 may mean activation of the component carrier, or vice versa.

Alternatively, the bits of the bitmap may also indicate the activation status of the component carriers associated with the corresponding bits. For example, a bit set to 0 can mean that the activation state of the corresponding component carrier is a configured but deactivated state, and a bit set to 1 can mean that the activation state of the component carrier is an active state (“configured and activated”), or vice versa. In this case, the mobile terminal will determine if there is a change in the activation state for the component carrier and, accordingly, activates or deactivates the corresponding component carrier. If the number of downlink component carriers to be distinguished is less than nine, only one octet of the payload is needed to signal the bitmap.

For example, in current 3GPP standardization regarding LTE-A 3GPP (Release 10), it is contemplated that a maximum of five downlink component carriers can be aggregated. One of these five downlink component carriers is intended to be a primary downlink component carrier, which is always active and therefore cannot be activated or deactivated. This leaves four additional secondary component downlink component carriers (SCCs) on the downlink, which can be configured in the user equipment and thus can be activated / deactivated. Therefore, in one exemplary embodiment of the invention, the bitmap is four bits in size, corresponding to a maximum of four secondary downlink component carriers. Thus, four additional bits remain for additional signaling in the MAC control, which can be used to initiate the transmission of SRS and / or power headroom reports (PHR) by the user equipment.

An exemplary component carrier activation message (de) defining a new DCI format for PDCCH transmission and for use in LTE-A 3GPP (Release 10) is shown in FIG. 25. By analogy with the other example DCI formats proposed here, the messages comprise the identification of the target user equipment. In addition, there are 4 flags forming a bitmap. Each of the flags is associated with a corresponding downlink component carrier and is used to (de) activate it, as described above. It should be noted that this 4-bit card can also form the payload of the MAC control that is used to implement the component carrier activation message (de).

In addition, it may be advantageous to provide a one-to-one mapping between each bit of the bitmap and the corresponding component carrier to which it relates. This kind of correspondence can be realized, for example, using the component carrier index (CI) used in the component carrier configuration message transmitted through the RRC. For example, the most significant bit (first bit) of a bitmap may be associated with the highest (or lowest) component carrier index, the second after the most significant (second bit) bitmap may be associated with the second after the highest (second after the lowest) component carrier index, etc. Thus, it is possible to establish a one-to-one correspondence between the individual bit positions in the bitmap and the component carriers to which they relate.

As mentioned above, a component carrier activation message (de), for example in the form of MAC controls, is included in a transport block on the PDSCH of one of the downlink component carriers. Therefore, in order to receive the (de) component carrier activation message, the user equipment must successfully decode the transport block in order to “receive” the (de) activation information. A transport block containing a component carrier activation message (de) (as well as other transport blocks on the PDSCH) can be transmitted using the HARQ protocol to ensure its successful delivery and decoding on user equipment. If the user equipment decoder was unable to decode the transport block, HARQ retransmissions for the transport block (including the message (de) activation of the component carrier) increase the time between the actual issuing of the command (de) activation from the eNodeB and the receipt of the command (de) activation on the user equipment. If you use the MAC control to (de) activate the component carrier, this may mean a delay in activation and deactivation with possible negative consequences for the scheduling and energy saving of the user equipment.

In order to minimize the possibility of retransmissions and thereby avoid the aforementioned possible negative consequences, the transmission of a component carrier activation message (de) may be limited, for example, to the most reliable downlink component carriers. In actual arrangements, this most reliable component carrier can be - in most cases - the primary component carrier (PCC) of the user equipment. The PCC is also associated with a Radio Link Failure (RLF), therefore, it must be a reliable component carrier, because otherwise the user equipment may not establish a reliable connection to the network. In addition, it is the only component carrier that is always active, i.e. cannot be deactivated or activated. Therefore, in one exemplary implementation, the eNodeB transmits a component carrier activation message (de) on the user equipment PCC to the user equipment. Therefore, if a component carrier activation message (de) is implemented as a MAC control, transmitting a MAC control to (de) activate the component carrier in the PCC reduces the likelihood of delaying the activation and deactivation of the secondary component carriers of the user equipment.

The preceding sections describe (de) activating configured downlink component carriers using either L1 signaling (i.e., the new DCI format on the PDCCH) or L2 signaling (i.e., signaling the message (de) activating the component carrier in the transport block on a PDSCH, for example, in the form of a MAC control). The following considerations apply to both aspects of this invention.

When the eNodeB deactivates the configured downlink component carrier, the user equipment may deactivate said component carriers immediately upon receipt of the deactivation command (component carrier deactivation message). If the user equipment receives the deactivation message for the configured component carrier when the transmission of the transport block using the HARQ protocol (i.e., one of the HARQ processes performs (re) transmission of the transport block to the PDSCH upon receipt of the deactivation command) is not completed, i.e. retransmissions are still awaiting the transport block, immediate deactivation of the component carrier will stop the HARQ retransmission, and the transport block will be lost.

Since the HARQ layer 2 protocol also terminates in the eNodeB, the eNodeB is aware of the current retransmissions of the user equipment HARQ on the configured downlink component carrier and thus may not deactivate the component carrier until the transport block has been successfully received by the user equipment, i.e. . will not be (positively) acknowledged by user equipment. However, this may imply that the eNodeB may need to send individual deactivation messages for each component carrier, even if it is possible to send a deactivation command in the same signaling message, because the HARQ operation on different component carriers of the downlink and the HARQ processes of the HARQ protocol may not be aligned.

Therefore, in another embodiment of the invention, so that the eNodeB can combine several deactivation commands in a single signaling message without causing loss of transport blocks, the user equipment does not deactivate the component carrier at the end of receiving the deactivation command for this configured component carrier. In contrast, the user equipment determines the HARQ protocol status for the component carrier (i.e., determines whether there is still pending retransmission (s) of the transport block (s)) and deactivates the component carrier after the successful completion of the pending transmission (i.e., when it is (positively) acknowledged by the user equipment, or upon reaching the maximum number of retransmissions for the waiting transmission).

This deactivation operation of the downlink component carrier also has the advantage that the eNodeB does not need to wait for acknowledgment of each of the transmissions on the component carriers to be deactivated, so that the actual deactivation command for the component carrier may appear several subframes (TTI) earlier because the user equipment does not need to wait for the acknowledgment of the last transmission.

In particular, when the (de) activation signaling is made by means of the MAC signaling, it is useful for saving energy on user equipment.

In the following paragraphs, various exemplary implementations and embodiments regarding the structure of a component carrier activation message format (de) are described in more detail.

In one exemplary implementation of a component carrier activation (de) message, a format (i.e., DCI format) is used to control the activation status of one downlink component carrier configured by the mobile terminal. In this embodiment, one of the “additional” bits / flags, as shown in FIG. 9 or FIG. 10, is used to request channel quality feedback from a mobile terminal for a downlink controlled component carrier. This may be particularly useful in situations where the downlink component carrier is activated (transitions from a configured but deactivated state to an active state). To this end, the component carrier activation message (de) contains a “CQI request flag” in its payload, which, when set, initiates the provision of channel quality feedback for the downlink component carrier activated by the component carrier activation message (de). An example of a component carrier activation message (de) according to one embodiment of the invention, including a CQI request flag, is shown in FIG.

In one more detailed exemplary implementation according to an embodiment of the invention, channel quality feedback in the form of CQI, PMI (precoding matrix indicator) or RI (rank indicator) may be transmitted on the resources of the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). If we consider an implementation in a 3GPP-based system, such as LTE-A 3GPP (Release 10), the possible PUCCH payload can be quite limited, since a single resource block shares PUCCH from multiple instances of user equipment. Therefore, feedback on channel quality may, for example, signal wideband CQI / PMI, assuming transmission with Rank = 1.

The transmission of a feedback message on channel quality can be further considered by the base station as an acknowledgment for a mobile terminal that has successfully received the component carrier activation message (de), respectively, for a mobile terminal that has executed the activation command contained in the component carrier activation message (de).

In addition, channel quality feedback (e.g., CQI / PMI) can be sent by a mobile terminal with a known time interval (e.g., 4 ms) after receiving a subframe (PDCCH) containing a component carrier activation message (de). In LTE 3GPP (Release 8/9) in FDD mode, the time interval between receiving a subframe (PDCCH) and the corresponding uplink transmission is 4 ms (it is more difficult to determine the time interval for TDD). The time interval between receiving a subframe (PDCCH) containing a component carrier activation message (de) and uplink channel quality feedback can alternatively be configured by means of RRC signaling. For example, it may be desirable to give the mobile terminal more than 4 ms (for example, 8 ms or 12 ms) to send feedback on the channel quality so that the mobile terminal can accurately measure the channel quality to obtain adequate CQI / PMI accuracy after activating the corresponding (them) component (s) of the carrier (s) downlink.

As for the uplink resources for transmitting feedback on channel quality, the resource on the PUCCH may be, for example, the same PUCCH resource that is allocated to the mobile terminal for periodically transmitting the CQI report. This PUCCH resource may be configured by the base station through RRC signaling when configuring the uplink / downlink component carrier.

Alternatively, channel quality feedback may also be transmitted via a PUCCH or PUSCH resource that is predetermined by the base station, for example, as part of a component carrier configuration message RRC. An additional alternative is that the uplink resource for transmitting channel quality feedback is indicated by one or more of the “additional” bits available in the payload of the component carrier activation message (de). This implementation can be successfully used in the case of a large component carrier band (as discussed above with respect to FIG. 9 and Table 4), where some bits may be unused and available to indicate feedback resources on the uplink. The last two alternatives can also be combined, whereby the component carrier configuration message RRC configures the uplink resource set for channel quality feedback (CQI / PMI / RI), and the activation message (de) contains a feedback resource field allowing select one of the available configured uplink resources. An example of an extended component carrier activation (de) message including a CQI request flag and a CQI feedback resource field is shown in FIG.

In addition, in the case where the uplink resource for channel quality feedback is signaled or pre-configured, the channel quality feedback is preferably determined according to the configured aperiodic CQI mode and / or the configured downlink transmission mode of the downlink component carrier, which is indicated via a message (de) activation of the component carrier.

In addition, in another embodiment, the channel quality feedback may also be multiplexed with other messages or signals of the physical layer, for example, HARQ (ACK / NACK), SR or SRS feedback, on the assigned uplink resource. In the case where only physical layer messages are signaled on the uplink resource, but not the transport block data, it is not necessary to use the HARQ process (HARQ protocol) for transmission, and therefore signaling of control information related to HARQ (for example, NDI, process ID HARQ, etc.) may not be required for transmission.

In another embodiment, a component carrier activation message (de) can be used to initiate / activate periodic channel quality feedback (CQI / PMI / RI periodic transmission) with respect to a subframe in which a component carrier activation message (de) is received for action downlink component carrier.

In this embodiment, a procedure known from LTE 3GPP (Release 8/9) is reused. Accordingly, periodic CQI / PMI / RI is mainly transmitted in subframes having a subframe number satisfying the condition:

(2)

(2)

Where

(3)

(3)

- номер системного кадра и

- индекс слота в кадре. Следует отметить, что приведенное здесь соотношение представляет собой упрощенный механизм для пояснения принципа хронирования, однако существуют особые случаи, когда хронирование оказывается немного сложнее (дополнительные подробности см. также в 3GPP TS 36.213, “Physical layer procedures”, версия 8.8.0 (выпуск 8) или 9.0.1 (выпуск 9), раздел 7.2.2, каковые документы доступны по адресу http://www.3gpp.org, и разделы включены в данное описание в порядке ссылки).and where

- system frame number and

- slot index in the frame. It should be noted that the ratio given here is a simplified mechanism for explaining the principle of timing, however, there are special cases where timing is a bit more complicated (for more details see also 3GPP TS 36.213, “Physical layer procedures”, version 8.8.0 (release 8 ) or 9.0.1 (release 9), section 7.2.2, which documents are available at http://www.3gpp.org, and sections are incorporated into this description by reference).

подкадров относительно подкадра сообщения (де)активации и начинает сигнализировать периодические отчеты CQI в подкадрах и на ресурсах PUCCH, которые были сконфигурированы для компонентной несущей, активированной посредством сообщения (де)активации компонентной несущей. Примерный сценарий согласно этому варианту осуществления изобретения для визуализации этой процедуры показан на фиг.22, где после активации компонентной несущей (CC) 2 нисходящей линии связи (DL) (CC2 DL) посредством сообщения активации CC отчет CQI (однократный CQI для CC2 DL) отправляется спустя

подкадра после приема сообщения активации CC для CC2 DL, в котором содержится и установлен флаг запроса CQI, тогда как последующие отчеты CQI для CC2 DL сигнализируются в подкадре, номер которого указан параметром

на ресурсах восходящей линии связи и с периодичностью

, сконфигурированной для периодической передачи отчета CQI. Кроме того, после того, как базовая станция сигнализирует сообщение деактивации CC для CC2 DL, в котором флаг запроса CQI содержится и не установлен, мобильный терминал вновь деактивирует CC2 DL и прекращает периодическую передачу отчета CQI.In one embodiment of the invention, in the case where the component carrier activation message (de) from the base station contains a set CQI flag, the mobile terminal provides a single (aperiodic) CQI report (single CQI) with a predetermined offset

subframes relative to the subframe of the (de) activation message and starts signaling periodic CQI reports in the subframes and on PUCCH resources that have been configured for the component carrier activated by the component carrier activation message (de). An exemplary scenario according to this embodiment of the invention for visualizing this procedure is shown in FIG. 22, where, after activating a downlink (DL) component carrier (CC) 2 (CC2 DL) via a CC activation message, a CQI report (one-time CQI for CC2 DL) is sent later

subframe after receiving the CC activation message for CC2 DL, which contains and sets the CQI request flag, while subsequent CQI reports for CC2 DL are signaled in the subframe, the number of which is indicated by the parameter

on uplink resources and with periodicity

configured to periodically transmit the CQI report. In addition, after the base station signals a CC deactivation message for CC2 DL in which the CQI request flag is contained and not set, the mobile terminal again deactivates CC2 DL and stops transmitting the CQI report periodically.

, в результате чего первый периодический отчет CQI мобильного терминала передается с заданным смещением

относительно сообщение активации компонентной несущей. В вышеуказанной процедуре периодической передачи отчета CQI для LTE 3GPP (выпуск 8/9) передача CQI/PMI/RI, таким образом, зависит от системного номера подкадра, независимо от номера подкадра для подкадра, содержащего сообщение (де)активации компонентной несущей. Чтобы начать периодическую передачу отчета CQI/PMI/RI как можно раньше, в этом варианте осуществления условие изменяется следующим образом. Периодический CQI/PMI/RI передается в подкадре, номер подкадра которого удовлетворяет вышеуказанным (обновленным) условиям (2) и (3), известным из 3GPP TS 36.213, однако определение смещения

изменено так, что оно не отсчитывается от номера подкадра 0, но от номера подкадра, в котором было принято сообщение (де)активации компонентной несущей, т.е.In another embodiment, a new calculation method is applied.

as a result of which the first periodic CQI report of the mobile terminal is transmitted with a predetermined offset

regarding the component carrier activation message. In the above procedure for periodic transmission of a CQI report for LTE 3GPP (Release 8/9), the transmission of CQI / PMI / RI thus depends on the system number of the subframe, regardless of the number of the subframe for the subframe containing the component carrier activation message (de). In order to start the periodic transmission of the CQI / PMI / RI report as early as possible, in this embodiment, the condition is changed as follows. Periodic CQI / PMI / RI is transmitted in a subframe whose subframe number satisfies the above (updated) conditions (2) and (3) known from 3GPP TS 36.213, however, the determination of the offset

changed so that it does not count from the number of subframe 0, but from the number of the subframe in which the component carrier activation message (de) was received, i.e.

(4)

(four)

- номер подкадра для подкадра, в котором сообщение (де)активации компонентной несущей инициирует (активирует) передачу отчета CQI/PMI/RI для активированной компонентной несущей нисходящей линии связи, и

- наибольший индекс подкадра. В LTE 3GPP (выпуск 8/9) номер системного кадра принимает значения от 0 до 1023, причем каждый системный кадр содержит слот от 0 до 19, следовательно

или

. В условии (4), смещение

, добавляемое к

, может быть, например, конфигурируемым или статическим.Where

a subframe number for a subframe in which the component carrier activation message (de) initiates (activates) the transmission of the CQI / PMI / RI report for the activated downlink component carrier, and

is the largest subframe index. In LTE 3GPP (8/9 release), the system frame number takes values from 0 to 1023, and each system frame contains a slot from 0 to 19, therefore

or

. In condition (4), the offset

added to

may be, for example, configurable or static.

, чтобы обеспечивать, что самая ранняя передача обратной связи по качеству канала происходит через 4 подкадра после номера подкадра для подкадра, в котором сообщение (де)активации компонентной несущей инициирует (активирует) передачу отчета CQI/PMI/RI для активированной(ых) компонентной(ых) несущей(их) нисходящей линии связи. Однако, если необходимо предоставить обратную связь по качеству канала с увеличенным смещением (т.е. позже), может потребоваться увеличить вышеупомянутый параметр

. Например,

.In one example,

in order to ensure that the earliest channel quality feedback transmission occurs 4 subframes after the subframe number for the subframe in which the component carrier activation message (s) initiates (activates) the transmission of the CQI / PMI / RI report for the activated component (s) s) the carrier (s) of the downlink. However, if you want to provide feedback on the quality of the channel with an increased offset (i.e. later), you may need to increase the above parameter

. For example,

.

, предполагается, что смещение

установлено согласно условию (4), и отчет CQI для CC2 DL отправляется через

подкадров, что в данном случае означает 4 подкадра, соответственно 4 мс, после приема сообщения активации CC на ресурсах PUCCH, сконфигурированных для периодической передачи отчета CQI. Затем мобильный терминал предоставляет периодические отчеты CQI для CC2 DL с периодичностью

, сконфигурированной для периодической передачи отчета CQI, пока сообщение деактивации CC базовой станции не деактивирует CC2 DL.23 illustrates the behavior of a mobile terminal according to this embodiment of the invention in response to receiving a component carrier activation message (de) containing a CQI request flag set using the updated periodic CQI reporting procedure. After the base station activates the CC2 DL through the CC activation message received in the subframe number

, it is assumed that the bias

set according to condition (4), and the CQI report for CC2 DL is sent via

subframes, which in this case means 4 subframes, respectively 4 ms, after receiving a CC activation message on PUCCH resources configured to periodically transmit a CQI report. The mobile terminal then provides periodic CQI reports for CC2 DL at intervals

configured to periodically transmit the CQI report until the CC deactivation message of the base station deactivates CC2 DL.

The advantage of the modified CQI / PMI / RI report periodic transmission procedure discussed in the previous paragraphs is that the first CQI / PMI / RI report is received very early after the activation of the downlink component carrier, which can help the base station dispatcher to schedule the transmission on the activated component downlink carrier, and that subsequent CQI reports are transmitted according to the configured periodicity.

Since, depending on the configuration of the CQI / PMI / RI periodic report, it may happen that it is not clear what kind of transmission rank (the transmission rank determines the size of the precoding matrix for MIMO transmissions), it is preferable that the first such periodic CQI / PMI report consists of a wideband report CQI / PMI, based on the fact that Rank = 1. Alternatively, the first CQI / PMI / RI report after activating the component downlink carrier (s) consists of a rank indicator (RI), followed by CQI / PMI in the next report transmitted according to the configuration of the periodic CQI / PMI / RI, as discussed in previous paragraphs.

In cases where the periodic CQI / PMI / RI report is configured as at least a wideband CQI / PMI and CQI subband according to 3GPP TS 36.213, section 7.2.2 can be processed using the aforementioned timing offset and the first CQI / PMI / RI report, complying with the principles as necessary. In particular, you should avoid sending the CQI subband as the first CQI report after activation.

In addition to or alternatively to the CQI request flag, the unused bits (extended use) of the component carrier activation message (de) can also be used to initiate uplink transmission sensing symbol (SRS) transmission or power headroom report (PHR).

In a further embodiment, the SRS request flag may be included in the component carrier activation message (de), as shown in FIG. The SRS request flag, when set by the base station, requests the mobile terminal to start transmitting sounding reference symbols (SRS) on the associated component (s) uplink carrier (s) that are associated with the component (s) ) the downlink carrier (s) activated by the component carrier activation message (de). If the component carrier activation message (s) activates the uplink component (s), the mobile terminal starts sending sounding reference symbols (SRS) on the activated uplink component (s) of the carrier. Initiating SRS instead of CQI can be especially useful in the case of time division duplex (TDD) systems, where it can be assumed that the channel is bidirectional, which makes it possible to use channel estimation for uplink based on SRS also for channel estimation for downlink.

Similar to the inclusion of the CQI request flag, it is preferable to include the SRS request flag in the component carrier activation messages (de), which indicates the activation of the component carrier. In case of deactivation, bits for any flag may be reserved for other signaling. Alternatively, an SRS request flag (or an SRS field having more than one bit) may also be present in (de) component carrier activation messages that have deactivated the component carrier, and may be used to indicate a new component carrier on which the mobile terminal should then wait or transmit signals that were previously transmitted on a component carrier that has been deactivated.

In yet another alternative implementation, bits for the SRS request flag and the CQI request flag in the component carrier activation message (de) can be used to indicate a time offset between the receipt of the activation command (de) and the execution of the activation command (de). Alternatively, additional bits can be used to signal whether the receiver should acknowledge receipt of a command (explained below).

The above SRS enable / disable signaling can also be implemented in accordance with the second and third aspects of the invention: Using MAC signaling. SRS information that indicates for which component carrier (s) on the uplink the SRS should be transmitted by user equipment. For example, SRS information that indicates (de) SRS activation can be provided, for example, in a new MAC control, similar to that described for (de) activating a component carrier. This MAC control contains a bitmap by analogy with the MAC control described above for (de) activating a downlink component carrier. Each bit in the bitmap is associated with one uplink component carrier of the user equipment for which SRS transmission needs to be started / stopped. Alternatively, bitmap bits associated with the corresponding of the configured downlink component carriers may be considered. In this case, a bit for a given downlink component carrier indicating (de) SRS activation will instruct the user equipment to (de) activate SRS transmission on the uplink component carrier associated with the given downlink component carrier. For example, a bitmap bit set to 0 may indicate that it is not necessary to transmit periodic SRS on an associated (connected) uplink component carrier, respectively, to stop transmitting a periodic SRS, while a bit set to 1 will indicate that it is necessary to activate the periodic transmission of SRS on the associated (connected) component carrier of the uplink (or vice versa).

If there are enough unused bits in the MAC control to (de) activate the downlink component carrier, these bits can be used to (de) activate SRS, as described above. In the above example, assuming there are five downlink component carriers aggregated on the downlink, of which four downlink component carriers can be activated or deactivated (i.e., one PCC and four SCCs are provided), four bits are required for (de ) activation of the secondary downlink component carriers. Based on the fact that the MAC control is one octet in size, the additional four bits remain unused and can be used for a bitmap to signal (de) activate SRS, as described above.

An exemplary MAC control that allows user equipment to simultaneously (de) activate downlink component carriers and (de) activate SRS transmissions is shown in FIG. 24. The first four bits of an octet form a bitmap for (de) activating a component downlink carrier, and the second four bits of an octet form a bitmap for (de) activating SRS transmission by user equipment. The advantage of combining two bitmaps for (de) activating SCC and (de) activating SRS transmission in a single MAC control element may be that periodic SRS transmission on the associated uplink component carrier (s) may begin simultaneously with the activation of the downlink SCC. This avoids the possible delays that can occur when both functions are signaled in separate MAC controls, and reduce overhead. It should be noted that (de) component carrier activation and SRS enable / disable can still be signaled independently, even when they are signaled in the same MAC control. FIG. 26 illustrates another exemplary implementation of a (de) component carrier activation message in the form of a new DCI format that allows user equipment to simultaneously (de) activate downlink component carriers and (de) activate SRS transmissions. Basically, the bitmask shown in FIG. 24 is signaled in this component carrier activation message (de) together with an indication of user equipment that should receive the component carrier activation message (de).

In another embodiment, when the downlink component carrier is activated by the base station, activation of the downlink component carrier initiates transmitting the power headroom (PHR) report by the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal may send a triggered PHR report to the base station on resources assigned by the next uplink grant for this associated uplink component carrier. This ensures that the base station is informed of a path loss situation for the associated uplink component carrier in a next uplink transmission of a mobile terminal on the associated uplink component carrier. This may be useful since the associated uplink component carrier has most likely not been used for at least a longer period of time before the activation of the associated downlink component carrier. Power headroom reports from the mobile terminal allow the base station to make more informed scheduling decisions.

Alternatively, in another embodiment, transmitting a detailed CQI report, transmitting an SRS, transmitting a PHR report, etc. in response to (de) the activation of the component carrier may also be configured by the base station using RRC signaling or may use a predetermined configuration (known to the base station and mobile terminal).

After the successful detection of the activation command (de), the mobile station can confirm the execution of the activation command (de) by sending an uplink acknowledgment message. In one embodiment of the invention, the following method is used to acknowledge successful decoding of a component carrier activation message (de) and, accordingly, execution of an activation command (de):

- sending acknowledgment (also referred to as “HARQ-ACK” in 3GPP terminology) in case of deactivation of the component carrier, where the resource for transmitting acknowledgment follows the principles of LTE 3GPP (release 8/9) for transmitting HARQ-ACK in case of downlink data transmission (PDSCH ), as defined in 3GPP TS 36.213, Section 10. In short, the PUCCH resource for the HARQ-ACK is determined according to the PDCCH resource on which the activation message (de) is transmitted. In this case, the eNodeB may perform power detection to check whether the HARQ-ACK has been transmitted on the expected resource or not.

- sending an acknowledgment (also referred to as “HARQ-ACK” in 3GPP terminology) in the case of activating a component carrier without requesting a fast CQI, where the resource for transmitting an acknowledgment follows the 3GPP LTE procedure (release 8/9) for transmitting the HARQ-ACK in case of downstream data transmission link, as specified in 3GPP TS 36.213, clause 10. In this case, the eNB may perform power detection to check whether the HARQ-ACK has been transmitted on the expected resource or not.

- sending a CQI report in the case of activation of a component carrier and the CQI request flag set in the message (de) activation of the component carrier. In this case, the eNodeB may perform power detection to check whether the CQI report has been transmitted on the expected resource or not.

- initiation of PHR in case of activation of a component carrier.

- as indicated above, feedback PUCCH resources for acknowledgment can be determined, for example, by the mobile terminal in the same way as provided in the LTE 3GPP procedure (release 8/9), as if the component carrier activation message (de) dispatched the PDSCH transmission, for example based on the DCI 1A format (which may be the same size as the component carrier activation message (de)). In addition, since the eNodeB is aware of whether the user equipment will send an acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) or CQI report, the eNodeB can track the corresponding uplink resources on which the acknowledgment or CQI report is expected from the user equipment.

Optionally, the user equipment may also send a NACK (HARQ NACK) if it has not decoded the component carrier activation message (de) according to LTE 3GPP (Release 8/9) to send a HARQ-NACK in the case of downlink data transmission as defined in 3GPP TS 36.213, section 10.

FIG. 20 illustrates an exemplary scenario according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, where the activation and deactivation RNTIs are configured to activate and, accordingly, deactivate component carriers. In this example, when one of the component carriers is activated using the CC activation message (activation RNTI), the user equipment synchronously signals the HARQ-ACK to the eNodeB to acknowledge the successful decoding of the CC activation message. The HARQ-ACK is sent at a given offset relative to the CC activation message (i.e., the PDCCH containing it), for example, after 4 ms. Similarly, after the base station again deactivates the component carrier via the CC deactivation message (RNTI deactivation), the user equipment again acknowledges the deactivation via the HARQ-ACK, which, again, is sent synchronously on the uplink after 4 ms.

FIG. 21 shows another exemplary scenario according to a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, where the activation and deactivation RNTIs are configured to activate and, accordingly, deactivate component carriers. In addition, the activation of one of the component carriers using the CC activation message (activation RNTI) additionally requires the user equipment to signal channel quality feedback for the activated downlink component carrier (CQI request flag set in the CC activation message). Accordingly, the user equipment signals with known timing regarding the CC activation message, in this case, 4 ms after receiving it, the CWI report on the eNodeB, thereby acknowledging the successful decoding of the CC activation message. After the base station again deactivates the component carrier via the CC deactivation message (RNTI deactivation), the user equipment again acknowledges the deactivation via the HARQ-ACK, which is sent synchronously on the uplink after 4 ms.

In the case where the eNodeB intends to simultaneously increase the capacity of the uplink and downlink, in an additional embodiment of the invention, the base station can additionally activate the component carrier of the downlink, which is associated with the component carrier of the uplink, which is not currently used for transmission on uplink communication. The eNodeB does not have channel quality information for an inactive or configured but deactivated uplink component carrier. Therefore, in this embodiment of the invention, the activation of the downlink component carrier further initiates the transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the uplink component carrier (s) associated with the activated component carrier (s) (them) downlink. In this case, no additional SRS request flag may be required, but the start of the SRS signaling on the uplink component carrier associated with the downlink component carrier activated by the component carrier activation message (de) may be the default behavior of the mobile terminal in response to activation of the component carrier downlink.

Like CQI reporting, SRS reporting is also not always useful / necessary. Therefore, the eNodeB should be able to enable / disable SRS transmission when the component (s) of the downlink carrier (s) are activated. For this purpose, you can include in the activation message (de) a flag indicating whether the user equipment should send SRS. Whether it is necessary to transmit such SRS once or periodically, it is possible to additionally configure, set or signal. In any case, additional “extra” bits can be used to specify one or more SRS parameters, such as bandwidth, duty cycle, etc. (see SRS parameters in LTE 3GPP (8/9 release)).

Of course, a component carrier activation message (de) can also be constructed with the possibility of simultaneously transmitting the CQI request flag, initiating the PHR and / or the SRS request flag.

.When the user equipment monitors the PDCCH, there is always a certain probability (false alarm rate) that the mobile terminal erroneously detects the PDCCH: CRC check PDCCH can give a positive result, despite the fact that the PDCCH is not intended for this user equipment, i.e. The CRC passes the check despite a mismatch between the RNTI (non-intended user). This so-called false alarm can occur if the two effects of transmission errors due to the radio channel and the RNTI mismatch cancel each other out. The probability of an erroneous conclusion about successful decoding of a PDCCH depends on the length of the CRC. The greater the length of the CRC, the lower the likelihood of an erroneous decision to successfully decode a CRC protected message. With a CRC size of 16 bits, the probability of a false alarm will be

.

In the case where the user equipment erroneously detects the PDCCH while the activation message (de) of the downlink component carrier indicates the deactivation of the specific downlink component (s) of the carrier, the user equipment will stop monitoring PDCCH / PDSCH for this ( their) specified component (s) downlink carrier (s) and will also stop transmitting CQI measurement reports. Due to the severe consequences of this behavior, it is desirable for user equipment to reduce the likelihood of a false alarm.

раз по сравнению с опасностью в случае применения одного CC-RNTI с четырехбитовым полем ID целевой компонентной несущей. Недостатком является увеличенная стоимость RNTI и ограничение, состоящее в необходимости множественных сообщений (де)активации для одновременной (де)активации множественных компонентных несущих.It can be assumed that every bit of the virtual CRC has the danger of a false alarm. On the other hand, with the addition of each RNTI used, the risk of false alarm increases linearly. For example, in the case of using four RNTI activation characteristic of a component carrier and four RNTI deactivation characteristic of a component carrier, the risk of false alarm is eight times higher than in the case of one CC-RNTI. On the other hand, using only eight CC-RNTIs does not require including the target CC ID field either in the DCI payload or in the activation / deactivation field payload. In most exemplary implementations discussed above, the largest ID size of the target component carrier is four bits. Therefore, the use of eight RNTI component carriers without the ID field of the target component carrier gives an increased risk of false alarm in

times compared to danger when using one CC-RNTI with a four-bit ID field of the target component carrier. The disadvantage is the increased cost of RNTI and the limitation consisting in the need for multiple messages (de) activation for the simultaneous (de) activation of multiple component carriers.

Therefore, in one embodiment of the invention, it is proposed that a component downlink activation message (de) contain one or more additional bits (in the CRC field) that can be used as a virtual CRC to reduce the risk of false alarms. This (them) additional (s) bit (s) is assigned a known, predefined value to be checked by the mobile terminal.

Another embodiment of the invention relates to the implementation of the various embodiments described above using software and hardware. Obviously, various embodiments of the invention can be implemented or implemented using computing devices (processors). The computing device or processor may be, for example, a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a custom integrated circuit (ASIC), a user programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, etc. Various embodiments of the invention can also be implemented or embodied as a combination of these devices.

In addition, various embodiments of the invention can also be implemented through software modules that are executed by the processor or directly in the equipment. Combined implementation through software modules and equipment is also possible. Software modules can be stored on computer-readable storage media of any kind, for example RAM, EPROM, EEPROM, in flash memory, registers, on hard drives, CD-ROM, DVD, etc.

It should also be noted that individual features of different embodiments of the invention, taken individually or in an arbitrary combination, may be the subject of another invention.

One of skill in the art can propose numerous changes and / or modifications of the present invention, shown in specific embodiments, without departing from the spirit or scope of the summarized invention. Therefore, these options for implementation should be considered in all respects exemplary and not restrictive.

Claims (20)

1. A communication method, comprising the following steps performed by a terminal in a communication system using carrier aggregation:
receiving a MAC control element on the primary component carrier, including a cluster of bits that indicates the activation / deactivation state of each of the at least one secondary component carrier, which is added to the primary component carrier, which is always activated, each of at least one secondary a component carrier corresponds to one bit included in said cluster of bits, and wherein said one bit indicates that the corresponding secondary component carrier should be an act activated or deactivated; and
activate or deactivate each of the at least one secondary component carrier according to the received MAC control. 2. The communication method according to claim 1, in which:
said cluster of bits consists of one octet. 3. The communication method according to claim 1, in which:
said cluster of bits comprises at least one unused bit. 4. The communication method according to claim 1, in which:
when said MAC control indicates that a specific secondary component carrier is to be activated, a specific secondary component carrier is activated and a sounding reference signal (SRS) is transmitted on the specific secondary component carrier. 5. The communication method according to claim 4, in which:
when a particular secondary component carrier is deactivated, SRS transmission is not performed. 6. The communication method according to claim 1, in which:
a primary component carrier and each of at least one secondary component carrier is a component carrier including a plurality of subcarriers. 7. A terminal for a communication system using carrier aggregation, the terminal comprising:
a receiving section configured to receive a MAC control on a primary component carrier including a cluster of bits that indicates an activation / deactivation state of each of at least one secondary component carrier, which is added to the primary component carrier, which is always activated, each of which at least one secondary component carrier corresponds to one bit included in said cluster of bits, and wherein said one bit indicates that the corresponding secondary The component carrier must be activated or deactivated; and
an activation section configured to activate or deactivate each of the at least one secondary component carrier according to the received MAC control. 8. The terminal according to claim 7, in which:
said cluster of bits consists of one octet. 9. The terminal according to claim 7, in which:
said cluster of bits comprises at least one unused bit. 10. The terminal according to claim 7, in which:
when said MAC control indicates that a specific secondary component carrier is to be activated, the activation section activates a specific secondary component carrier and transmits a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the specific secondary component carrier. 11. The terminal according to claim 10, in which:
when a particular secondary component carrier is deactivated, SRS transmission is not performed. 12. The terminal according to claim 7, in which:
a primary component carrier and each of at least one secondary component carrier is a component carrier including a plurality of subcarriers. 13. The terminal of claim 7, wherein said sections are embodied in an integrated circuit. 14. A communication method, comprising the following steps performed by a base station in a communication system using carrier aggregation:
form a MAC control that includes a cluster of bits that indicates the activation / deactivation state of each of the at least one secondary component carrier, which is added to the primary component carrier, which is always activated, each of the at least one secondary component carrier corresponds to one a bit included in said cluster of bits, wherein said one bit indicates that the corresponding secondary component carrier should be activated or deactivated; and
transmit the formed MAC control on the primary component carrier. 15. The communication method according to p. 14, in which:
said cluster of bits consists of one octet and contains at least one unused bit. 16. The communication method according to p. 14, in which:
when said MAC control indicates that a specific secondary component carrier is to be activated, the MAC control instructs the terminal device to activate a specific secondary component carrier and transmit a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the specific secondary component carrier. 17. A base station for a communication system using carrier aggregation, comprising:
a generating section configured to form a MAC control including a cluster of bits that indicates an activation / deactivation state of each of at least one secondary component carrier that is added to the primary component carrier that is always activated, each of at least one the secondary component carrier corresponds to one bit included in said cluster of bits, and wherein said one bit indicates that the corresponding secondary component carrier must be activated or deactivated; and
a transmitting section configured to transmit the generated MAC control on the primary component carrier. 18. The base station according to claim 17, in which:
said cluster of bits consists of one octet and contains at least one unused bit. 19. The base station according to claim 17, in which:
when said MAC control indicates that a specific secondary component carrier is to be activated, the MAC control instructs the terminal device to activate a specific secondary component carrier and transmit a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the specific secondary component carrier. 20. The base station of claim 17, wherein said sections are embodied in an integrated circuit.

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