Harq-ack handling for unintended downlink sub-frames

Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment (HARQ.-ACK) handling for accidental downlink subframes

BACKGROUND

Long Term Evolution (LTE) and other wireless networks are based on the transmission of messages over an unreliable medium between a mobile device (for example, a User Equipment (UE) and the Radio Access Network (RAN). In LTE, the RAN consists of a or multiple eNodeBs. This unreliable communication medium can create problems for proper communication of data between the RAN and the UE as data can be lost or garbled due to low signal quality, interference or other problems associated with the wireless medium.

SUMMARY

Examples may provide a User Equipment (UE) that includes a response module arranged to: receiving one or more downlink assignments for a bundling window over a wireless downlink control channel, setting a receive status for each subframe of a downlink data channel in the bundling window that has a corresponding downlink assignment associated with that particular subframe based on whether the subframe was successfully received; and setting a reception status of each subframe of the downlink data channel in the bundling window that does not have a corresponding downlink assignment to a predetermined value, and a transmission module arranged to send a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ.) response, wherein the response based on the receive statuses set by the response module.

In some examples, the reception status is one of: an acknowledgment (ACK), a negative acknowledgment (NACK), and a discontinuous reception (DTX).

In some examples, the predetermined value is a value indicating a discontinuous transmission (DTX).

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In some examples, the user unit UE is arranged to operate in a time division duplex (Time Division Duplex, TDD) state and the transmission module is arranged to send the response using a Physical Uplink Control Channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH) format lb.

In some examples, the bundling window is larger than 2 subframes.

In some examples, the transmission module is arranged to send the response by selecting a PUCCH uplink resource, a constellation, and a set of code bits based on the reception statuses.

In some examples, the UE is arranged to communicate with a wireless network that uses a Long Term Evolution, LTE, family of standards.

In some examples, the UE is arranged to utilize carrier aggregation with two handling cell configurations.

Examples also provide a method comprising determining for each index j of a plurality of downlink subframes whether one or more received downlink assignment index (DAI) values ​​equal j + p, where one or more DAl values ​​received over a downlink control channel, where j< M -1, where M is a number of subframes in a response bursting window, where p is a constant, which sets the receive status of the subframe corresponding to j to a predetermined value in response to determining that none of the one or more DAl values ​​is equal to j + 1, and sends the receive status of each of the plurality of downlink subframes j in the stacking window M.

In some examples, the predetermined value is a value indicating a discontinuous transmission (DTX).

In some examples, the method may include determining whether there is a downlink shared channel transmission in a primary cell without a corresponding downlink control channel detected within the bundling window, corresponding to determining that there is a downlink shared channel without a corresponding downlink control channel, setting in p to 0, corresponding to establishing that it

545 113 there is no downlink shared channel but a corresponding downlink control channel, which sets p to 1.

In some examples, the receive statuses are sent using a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) format lb.

In some examples, the method includes sending the reception statuses by selecting at least one PUCCH uplink resource, a constellation, and a set of code bits based on the reception statuses.

Examples may also provide a User Equipment (UE) comprising a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ.) module arranged to determine, for each index j of a plurality of downlink subframes, whether one or more received downlink assignment indices ( downlink assignment index, DAI) value is equal to j + p, where p is a constant and where one or more DAl values ​​are received over a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), where j < M -1, and where M is a number of subframes in a HARQ.-bundling window, determining a receive status of the subframe corresponding to ji response to determining that one or more DAl values ​​are equal to j + p; and setting the receive status of the subframe corresponding to j to a predetermined value in response to determining that none of the one or more DAl values ​​is equal to j + p, and a transmission module arranged to send the receive status of each of the plurality of downlink subframes ji the bundling window M.

In some examples, the receive status is one of:

acknowledgment (acknowledgement, ACK), negative acknowledgment (negative acknowledgment, NACK) and discontinuous reception (Discontinuous Reception, DTX).

In some examples, the predetermined value is a value indicating a discontinuous transmission (DTX).

In some examples, the predetermined value is a value separate from a value indicating an ACK, a NACK, and a DTX.

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In some examples, the predetermined value is a value selected at random from one of a value indicating an ACK, a NACK, and a DTX.

In some examples, the UE is arranged to operate in a Time Division Duplex (TDD) state.

In some examples, the UE is arranged to multiplex HARQ. receive statuses.

In some examples, the transmission module is arranged to send the reception statuses using a physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH) format lb.

In some examples, the HARQ. module is further arranged to determine whether there is a Primary Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmission in a primary cell without a corresponding PDCCH detected within the stacking window, in response to determining whether there is a PDSCH without a corresponding PDCCH, and set p to 0, in response to determining that there is no PDSCH without a corresponding PDCCH, and then set p to 1.

In some examples, the transmission module is arranged to send the receive status by selecting a PUCCH uplink resource, a constellation, and a set of code bits based on the receive statuses.

In some examples, the UE is arranged to communicate with a wireless network that uses a Long Term Evolution, LTE, family of standards.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a table showing mappings from HARQ-ACK responses to resources, constellations, and RM Code Input Bits (RM Code Input Bits) for two cells with a stacking window of 3, in accordance with some examples of the present disclosure.

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Fig. 2 is a table showing mappings from HARQ.-ACK responses to resources, constellations, and RM codebits for two cells with a stacking window of 4 in accordance with certain examples of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2A is a continuation of the table of Fig. 2 in accordance with certain examples of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 shows a diagram of an exemplary resource allocation in accordance with certain examples of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 shows a diagram of an exemplary resource allocation in accordance with certain examples of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5A shows a flow diagram of a method for generating a HARQ.-ACK response in accordance with certain examples of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5B shows a flow diagram of a method for generating a HARQ.-ACK response in accordance with certain examples of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 shows a block diagram of a wireless communication system in accordance with certain examples of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 shows a functional block diagram illustrating certain functions of a UE and an eNodeB in accordance with certain examples of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 shows a block diagram of a machine in accordance with certain examples of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

To deal with the unreliable wireless communication medium, LTE and other cellular networks use a mechanism called Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ.) to provide error correction and packet acknowledgments to

545 113 ensure safe delivery of data between RAN and UE. HARQ provides receiver-side error correction using forward error correction coding (FEC) as well as automatic repeat request (ARQ) mechanisms to indicate to the sending party whether or not packets were received successfully. When receiving packets of data, the receiver uses an error detection code (for example, a Cyclic Redundancy Check, CRC) to determine whether the packet was received correctly. If the packet was received successfully, the receiver acknowledges to the sending party using a feedback mechanism (eg ACK). If the packet was not received successfully, the receiver can attempt to repair the packet using FEC information. If the receiver is successful in using the FEC information to repair the packet, it can send ACK to the sending party, otherwise the receiver can respond to the sending party with a Negative Acknowledgment (NACK). In yet other examples, the receiver (the user equipment, UE) may respond that it was in Discontinuous Transmission Mode (DTX). The DTX response may represent a case in which the UE is not able to properly detect information on a control channel (for example, the Primary Downlink Control Channel PDCCH) and thus was not able to determine whether a packet was sent to the UE.

In a cellular network, these HARQ responses are typically transmitted on the control channels. The responses for downlink traffic sent from the RAN to the UE are typically sent in uplink control channels (eg the Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH). Responses for uplink traffic sent from the UE to the RAN are typically sent in downlink HARQ-ACK channels (eg the Physical hybrid HARQ indicator channel: PHICH). Packets that are not acknowledged (either NACKed or simply not acknowledged at all) may be retransmitted by the sending party.

In some systems, uplink communications (from UE to RAN) are separated from downlink communications in the frequency domain. This means that uplink and downlink wireless communications take place on different frequency bands. These systems are referred to as Frequency Duplex Division (FDD) systems. In other examples, uplink and downlink wireless communications may share the same frequency band, but may be separated in the time domain. This means that frequency bands are reserved for uplink wireless

545 113 transmissions in certain time instances (for example called time slots), and downlink wireless communications in other time instances (for example time slots). This scheme is called Time Division Duplex (TDD). In still other examples, half-duplex FDD (H-FDD) systems exhibit uplink and downlink wireless communications on different frequency bands, but are also shared in the time domain.

The true nature of cellular networks is that communications between the UE and the RAN are asymmetric in favor of the downlink wireless link. This means that more data is typically sent from the RAN to the UE than from the UE to the RAN. To compensate for this, cell planners will often allocate more frequency or time resources (depending on whether the network is FDD or TDD) to the downlink wireless communications than are allocated to the uplink wireless communications.

This resource asymmetry creates problems for the UE in its attempts to handle the necessary HARQ acknowledgments because there are often insufficient uplink resources on the uplink control channels to send these responses. This problem can only be overcome by adding multiple carriers and other uplink signaling, such as Channel State Information.

In LTE, wireless transmissions are typically broken down into discrete units called frames, which in turn can be broken down into subframes, and the subframes into one or more code words. Each chord word can have a mapping connection with a particular transport box, which are used here interchangeably unless otherwise specified. With FDD systems, the HARQ. response can be sent in a fixed number of subframes after the transmission is received (typically 4 subframes later). However, in TDD systems, a fixed delay is not possible because there is often a variable number of uplink and downlink time slots in a radio frame due to the asymmetric wireless imbalance.

To solve these problems for TDD systems, the third generation partnership project (3^rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP), which promulgates the standards for 4G (LTE) wireless networks, has developed several mechanisms. The first is ACK/NACK/DTX time domain bundling. For HARQ.-ACK stacking, i.e. for the ACK, NACK or DTX result, for each particular codeword in each downlink subframe for a particular number of subframes (which are called a stacking window) received

545 113 on the downlink channel (eg a Physical Downlink Shared Channel - PDSCH) these are logically ANDED to create one or more composite results corresponding to each code word in all subframes of a burst window. The number of composite ACK/NACK/DTX results generated is then equal to the number of code words in a subframe. For example, if the size of the stacking window is four downlink subframes, each subframe has two codewords, and the acknowledgments for the first codeword in subframes 0-3 are logically ANDED together, and the other codewords in subframes 0-3 are also ANDED together to generate two confirmation bits. The advantage of this technique is that it is very compact, using few bits so that the uplink coverage can be assured. The disadvantage is that if any of the codewords in any of the subframes has not been received correctly, then the particular codeword for all subframes will have to be retransmitted. Another technique is to use HARQ.-ACK multiplexing which can then logically AND the codewords (ie called spatial domain stacking) for each downlink subframe individually to generate an acknowledgment bit for each downlink subframe. The result is an ACK/NACK/DTX result for each associated downlink subframe within a bundling window. The four downlink subframes with two codewords per subframe, a spatial domain bundling across two codewords (if any) by a logical AND operation is applied in the subframe, and the plurality of bundled ACK/NACKs in the subframes can result in a composite state within a bundling window. For a HARQ.-ACK response sent on the Physical Uplink Control Channels (PUCCH), the composite state can be represented as a combination of a PUCCH resource and constellation points. This results in four confirmation results - one for each subframe. Note that despite the fact that the name of this particular HARQ.-ACK technique is multiplexing, throughout this description bursting windows are used.

A burst window is a unit of time (eg, a number of subframes) that specifies when HARQ.-ACK feedback corresponding to downlink traffic in a particular uplink subframe is sent in the uplink. A UE sends HARQ.-ACK feedback using PUCCH in a subframe n where HARQ.-ACK feedback for n - k_ir where k, e K (as defined in Table 1) and 0 < i < M -1. The bursting window is generally defined as the downlink subframes for n - k, for an uplink HARQ.-ACK feedback at subframe n.

Table 1. Downlink association set index K: {ko,ki,...k/vM} for TDD

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<td rowspan="2">UL-DL configuration</td><td colspan="10">Subframe n</td>

<td> 0</td><td> 1</td><td> 2</td><td> 3</td><td> 4</td><td> 5</td><td> 6</td><td> 7</td><td> 8</td><td> 9</td>

<td> 0</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> 6</td><td> -</td><td> 4</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> 6</td><td> -</td><td> 4</td>

<td> 1</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> 7, 6</td><td> 4</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> 7, 6</td><td> 4</td><td> -</td>

<td> 2</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> 8, 7, 4, 6</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> 8, 7, 4, 6</td><td> -</td><td> -</td>

<td> 3</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> 7, 6, 11</td><td> 6,5</td><td>LT?</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td>

<td> 4</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> 12, 8, 7, 11</td><td> 6, 5, 4, 7</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td>

<td> 5</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> 13, 12, 9, 8, 7, 5, 4, 11, 6</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> -</td>

<td> 6</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> 7</td><td> 7</td><td> 5</td><td> -</td><td> -</td><td> 7</td><td> 7</td><td> -</td>

TDD UL-DL configuration table is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. TDD UL-DL configuration

<td rowspan="2">TDD UL/DL- -configuration</td><td rowspan="2">Downlink to uplink switching point periodicity</td><td colspan="10">Subframe count</td>

<td> 0</td><td> 1</td><td> 2</td><td> 3</td><td> 4</td><td> 5</td><td> 6</td><td> 7</td><td> 8</td><td> 9</td>

<td> 0</td><td>5 ms</td><td>D</td><td>S</td><td>U</td><td>U</td><td>U</td><td>D</td><td>S</td><td>U</td><td>U</td><td>U</td>

<td> 1</td><td>5 ms</td><td>D</td><td>S</td><td>U</td><td>U</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>S</td><td>U</td><td>U</td><td>D</td>

<td> 2</td><td>5 ms</td><td>D</td><td>S</td><td>U</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>S</td><td>u</td><td>D</td><td>D</td>

<td> 3</td><td>10 ms</td><td>D</td><td>S</td><td>U</td><td>U</td><td>U</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td>

<td> 4</td><td>10 ms</td><td>D</td><td>S</td><td>U</td><td>U</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td>

<td> 5</td><td>10 ms</td><td>D</td><td>S</td><td>U</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td><td>D</td>

<td> 6</td><td>5 ms</td><td>D</td><td>S</td><td>U</td><td>U</td><td>U</td><td>D</td><td>S</td><td>U</td><td>U</td><td>D</td>

TDD uplink/downlink configurations (D = downlink, S = special subframe with the three fields DwPTS, GP and UpPTS which are used to give UE time for the switch from downlink to uplink, U = uplink).

LTE Advanced supports carrier aggregation in which multiple carriers can be used in the downlink. This means that several ACK/NACK information bits for several carriers do not need any feedback in the uplink. To this end, LTE defines a technology known as

545 113 channel selection within the time domain bundling. This technique uses a similar technique to HARQ.-ACK multiplexing except that the time domain bundling of this technique is slightly different from the existing one. The time domain bundling for carrier aggregation may be due to a number of consecutive ACKs to be sent for each component carrier while for single carriers it is to send the logically bundled HARQ.-ACK information. The resulting ACK/NACK information can be encoded by the joint selection of a channel and a Q.PSK constellation symbol. Crucially, the multiplexed acknowledgments this results in can then be indexed into a lookup table to select a two-bit field (the Q.PSK constellation) and a PUCCH resource (the selected channel) for PUCCH transmission. An RMcode bit setting is also provided in case HARQ.-ACK is piggybacked on (a successor to) PUSCH. The mapping tables are shown in Figs. 1 and 2 (Fig. 2 is continued in Fig. 2A) for different binning window sizes. The column labeled HARQ.-ACK(0)-(2) for Fig. 1 and HARQ.-ACK(0)-(3) for Fig. 2 and Fig. 2A represent ACK, NACK, or DTX decisions for the particular subframe for both the primary and secondary cells (PCell and SCelI respectively). For example, in the case of a four subframe burst window, if subframe(O) was received successfully (ACK), subframe (1) was received unsuccessfully (NACK), subframe (2) was received successfully (ACK) and subframe (3) was successfully received (ACK) in the primary cell and a response of ACK, ACK, ACK, NACK in the secondary cell, then the UE would select a constellation of (0,1) with feedback resource corresponding to a physical uplink control channel ( Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH) 3 and use code bits of 0,0,1,1. Briefly, the HARQ.-ACK(j) column is the ACK/NACK/ or DTX response for each particular downlink subframe for each of the primary and secondary cells (for multiple carriers) and the corresponding PUCCH resources, constellations and RMs -the code bits to be used depend on the HARQ.-ACK(j) selected for each of the primary and secondary cells. This technique utilizes PUCCH format lb when HARQ.-ACK is sent while utilizing PUCCH.

HARQ.-ACK bundling or HARQ.-ACK multiplexing cannot work properly if the UE does not correctly receive the scheduling information for any scheduled frames. For example, if the eNodeB schedules the terminal for two subframes with a bursting window of size 2, but the UE only receives the last frame, and was unaware that it was scheduled in the first frame, the UE would respond with an ACK. The eNodeB would interpret this ACK as an acknowledgment in both subframes. To determine when a downlink grant to a UE is missed, the LTE specification provides a downlink assignment index (Downlink Assignment

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Index, DAI) which is sent to the UE from the RAN together with the downlink scheduling information on the PDCCH. The DAI transmitted in the downlink allows and prevents the accumulated number of PDCCH(s) with dedicated PDSCH transmissions and PDCCHs indicating Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) released up to the current subframe within the same bundling window of each of the configured handled the cells. The UE then uses DAI to generate HARQ.-ACK(j) within the burst window.

Referring to Fig. 3, an exemplary response calculation is shown. In the example in Fig. 3, a stacking window with four subframes (M = 4) is shown in two configured cells. The HARQ.-ACK(j) response for the primary cell (Pcell) is ACK, ACK, DTX, ACK and in the secondary cell (SCell) it is ACK, NACK, NACK, resp. ALAS. DAls received on the PDCCH are for the PCell 1 for subframe 0, 2 for subframe 1, and 4 for subframe 3. Note that the UE was not able to decode the PDCCH on subframe 2 (m = 2) and thus could not update its DAl value. Even if the UE lost the updated DAl value, it regains this value in subframe m = 3 and thus knows that the DAI is 4 at the end of the bursting window. Since the DAl value is 4, the UE knows that it needs four HARQ.-ACK(j) responses. For the SCell, DAls received on PDCCH 1, 2, 3 and 4 for subframes 0,1, 2 are resp. 3.

Based on the mapping table in Fig. 2 and 2A, this produces a response as follows:

<td>Primary cell</td><td>Secondary cell</td><td>Resource</td><td>Constellation</td><td>RM Code- biting</td>

<td>HARQ- ACK(O), HARQACK(l), HARQ- ACK(2), HARQ- ACK(3)</td><td>HARQ- ACK(O), HARQACK(l), HARQ- ACK(2), HARQ- ACK(3)</td><td>COUCH RESOURCE</td><td>b(0), b(l)</td><td>o(0), o(l), o(2),o(3)</td>

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<td>Primary cell</td><td>Secondary cell</td><td>Resource</td><td>Constellation</td><td>RM Code- Bites in</td>

<td>ACK, ACK, NACK/DTX, whatever</td><td>(ACK, NACK/ DTX, any, any), except (ACK, DTX, DTX, DTX)</td><td> 1</td><td> 0,1</td><td> 1, 0, 0, 0</td>

Note that there is a problem when all subframes of a particular bundling window have not been scheduled by the RAN. Since some frames are not scheduled, the DAI will not be incremented and will be less than the burst window size at the end of the burst window. The feedback tables in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 assume that all frames have been scheduled. Fig. 4 shows an example of this difficulty. In this example, the first two downlink subframes in the PCell are not scheduled. Thus, for subframe 2, DAI is 1 and for subframe 3, DAI is 2 (compared to Fig. 3, where DAI was 3 and 4 for subframes 2 and 3, respectively). Since HARQ.-ACK(j) is determined together with the DAl value, HARQ.ACK(O) corresponds to subframe 2 and HARQ.-ACK(1) corresponds to subframe 3. However, HARQ.-ACK(2) and HARQ.- ACK(3) undefined because there are no corresponding DAl values ​​of 3 and 4 within the burst window as defined by DAI. This is because the DAl value is defined as the cumulative number of PDCCHs within a dedicated PDSCH transmission and the PDCCH indicates downlink Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) released up to the current subframe within the burst window. Therefore, if there is no expected DL subframe to be monitored by the UE for HARQ.-ACK(j) related to the DAl value within a bursting window, a UE behavior is not specified.

Described in some examples are systems, methods, UEs, and machine-readable media which solve the difficulty of generating an acknowledgment in the situation where a last received DAI (last received, LDAI) value is less than a size of a burst window. In some examples, a predetermined condition is used for HARQ.-ACK(j) for the case where LDAI &lt;=j &lt; Ml, where M is the multiplexing or stacking window size. For example, the DTX state can be baked into these HARQ.-ACK responses. So, for example, in Fig. 4 would HARQ.-ACK(j) for the PCell to be used to determine the important response parameters be: ACK, ACK, DTX, DTX.

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Since the last two states of the PCell are baked in by the DTX, the UE will know the exact mapping from the table to use. Furthermore, on the network side, since the eNodeB already knows the last two states embedded with DTX, relevant states other than DTX can be excluded using PUCCH detection hypothesis tests which can improve HARQ.-ACK detection performance. For example in Fig. 3 is it that because the HARQ.-ACK response in PCell is {ACK, ACK, DTX, DTX}, {ACK, NACK, DTX, DTX}, {NACK, ACK, DTX, DTX} or {NACK, NACK, DTX , DTX} the states of {any, any, ACK/NACK, ACK/NACK} can be excluded in eNB detection. By reducing the detection hypothesis tests, the PUCCH detection performance can be improved.

Applying this procedure to the example shown in Fig. 4 produces:

<td>Primary cell</td><td>Secondary cell</td><td>Resource</td><td>Constellation</td><td>RM Code- biting</td>

<td>HARQ- ACK(O), HARQACK(l), HARQ- ACK(2), HARQ- ACK(3)</td><td>HARQ- ACK(O), HARQACK(l), HARQ- ACK(2), HARQ- ACK(3)</td><td>COUCH RESOURCE</td><td>b(0), b(l)</td><td>o(0), o(l), o(2),o(3)</td>

<td>ACK, ACK, NACK/DTX, whatever</td><td>(ACK, NACK/ DTX, any, any), except (ACK, DTX, DTX, DTX)</td><td> 1</td><td> 0,1</td><td> 1, 0, 0, 0</td>

While in some examples HARQ.-ACK(j) may be filled with the DTX decay in which all downlink subframes within a burst window were not scheduled, in other examples other values ​​may be used, such as an ACK-NACK, or another defined value. This

545 113 applies because the eNodeB has sufficient system knowledge to ignore these values. In fact, in some examples, the UE may arbitrarily select any ACK/NACK/DTX value.

Referring to Fig. 5A, a method 5000 is shown to confirm a transmission when not all downlink frames in a particular bundling window have been scheduled. At function 5010, the UE receives scheduling information on the PDCCH indicating downlink frames to be scheduled. At operation 5020, the UE determines that it has received the latest downlink assignment for a particular bundling window and at operation 5030 it is determined that the last DAl value (LDAI) is less than the bundling window size. In operation 5040, the UE determines the ACK/NACK/DTX responses for the frames for which the UE was aware that it was scheduled. At function 5050, the remaining HARQ.-ACK(j) which do not have corresponding DAl values ​​are filled with a predetermined value (eg DTX).

Referring to Fig. 5B, a method 5100 is shown to process an acknowledgment at an eNodeB of a transmission in which not all downlink frames in a particular bundling window have been scheduled. In function 5110, the base station (e.g. eNodeB) can schedule one or more downlink transmissions for a particular acknowledgment period (e.g. a bundling window) and notify the UE through a downlink control channel such as a physical downlink control channel (Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH). At function 5120, the eNodeB may send the scheduled frames. At operation 5130, the eNodeB may receive the response from the UE. At operation 5140, the eNodeB may determine that the last DAl value sent on the PDCCH is less than a burst window size. At operation 5150, the eNodeB may use the resource (eg, the PUCCH resource) on which the response was received along with the received constellation and RM code bits to determine the response, given that HARQ.-ACK(j) where j is LDAI &lt;= j &lt; Ml, where M is the multiplexing or stacking window size, which are binned values. The eNodeB can then send any necessary retransmissions.

Referring to Fig. 6, a system 6000 for confirming transmissions is shown. User Equipment (UE) 6010 communicates with a radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN) 6020 which may include one or more base stations (eg an eNodeB) 6030, 6035 over one or more radio links 6040. The RAN 6020 may be connected to a core network 6045 , such as an enhanced packet core (enhanced Packet Core). The EPC 6045 may be connected to a network 6050, such as the Internet, a Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) network, or the like. IN

545 113 system of Fig. 6, radio links 6040 can operate in a Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode.

Fig. 7 shows a partial functional diagram of a UE 7000 (several components not shown may be included). The UE 7000 may include a transmission module 7010. The transmission module 7010 may send control and user traffic to the RAN over one or more uplink channels such as a physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH), a physical uplink shared channel (Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH) or similar. The transmission module 7010 may send acknowledgments for user traffic and control traffic sent from the RAN to the UE 7000 on the downlink channels (eg the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) - and the Physical Dedicated Control Channel (PDCCH)).

The receiving module 7020 can receive information sent by the RAN on the downlink channels such as the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and inform the response module 7030 of the reception status of that information. For example, received subframes can be decoded at the receive module (and any FEC correction can be done here as well) and an indication of whether the subframe should be ACKed, NACKed, or DTXed can be sent to the response module 7030. The receive module 7020 can also pass various combination parameters to the response module 7030, such as the size of the bundling window and the last received DAI for that window.

The response module 7030 may inform the transmission module 7010 of the appropriate response parameters (eg, PUCCH resource, RM code bits, constellation) in accordance with the tables in Figs. 1 and 2 (continued in Fig. 2A) based on LDAI, bundling window size, and the like. For example, the response module 7030 may make a determination that a number of received downlink missions is less than the size of a response burst window and based on this determination, set the reception status of each of the received downlink missions based on whether a frame associated with a particular received downlink assignment received successfully, and setting the receive status of a frame in the bundling window that had no corresponding downlink assignment to a predetermined value. For example, the response module may determine for each index j for a plurality of downlink subframes in a response bundle window

545 113 if one or more received downlink assignment index (DAI) values ​​are equal to j + p. To determine a reception status (ACK/NACK/DTX) of the subframe corresponding to ji response to determining that one of the one or more The DAl values ​​are equal to j + p. Setting the receive state of the subframe corresponding to j to a predetermined value in response to determining that none of the one or more DAl values ​​is equal to j + p. Where p is a constant (eg 0 or 1), where one or more DAl values ​​are received over the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), where j&lt; M -1, and where M is a number of subframes in a HARQ. bundle window. The response module 7030 may also be called a HARQ. module and may then instruct the transmission module 7010 to send the appropriately determined response. In some examples, the variable p may be zero if there is a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmission in the primary cell without a corresponding PDCCH detected within the bundling window, otherwise p may be one. Therefore, the value p can represent whether or not a SemiPersistent Scheduling (SPS) PDSCH without a corresponding PDCCH exists within a bundling window. Note that while the description describes a PDCCH with a DAl value for a scheduled downlink frame, the description can also be used when the UE receives a PDCCH indicating a downlink Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) release message which also includes a DAl value .

Fig. 7 also shows a partial functional diagram of an eNodeB 7100 (more components not shown may be included). eNodeB 7100 includes a transmission module 7110 which sends user data and control data on one or more channels. For example, user data or control data can be sent on a physically dedicated control channel (Physical Dedicated Control Channel, PDCCH) or a physically dedicated shared channel (Physical Dedicated Shared Channel, PDSCH).

The transmission module 7110 can schedule frames for transmission and signal to the UE on the PDCCH. The transmission module 7110 can also send DAI in PDCCH. The receiving module 7120 can receive control and user data on the uplink communication channels such as the physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH) and the physical uplink shared channel (Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH). The receiving module 7120 can receive the HARQ responses from the UE to the downlink subframes (eg ACK-NACK-DTX responses). In response to this information, the receiving module may indicate to the transmitting module that certain data may need to be retransmitted. The receiving module 7120 may decode the response based on determining which PUCCH resources the response was received by, the received

545 113 the constellation bits and received RM codes. The receive module 7120 may also determine the last DAl value in the bursting window and if this was less than the number of subframes in the bursting window and that one or more of the ACK-NACK-DTX of the subframes should be ignored as not representing an actual transmission.

Fig. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary machine 8000 upon which one or more of the techniques (eg, methodologies) discussed herein may be performed. UE, RAN (including eNodeBs) or EPC can be or include parts of the machine 8000.1 alternative embodiments, the machine 8000 can function as a stand-alone device or be connected (eg networked) with other machines. In a networked arrangement, machine 8000 can function in the capacity of a server machine, a client machine, or both in server-client network environments. In one example, the machine 8000 can function as an equal (peer) machine in a so-called peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. The machine 8000 can be a personal computer (PC), a tablet personal computer, a so-called set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA), a mobile phone (such as a UE), a web product, a wireless base station , a network router, a switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term machine shall also be interpreted as including any collection of machines that individually or collectively can execute a set (or sets) of instructions to perform any one or more procedures discussed in this paper, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), or other computer cluster configurations. For example, the functions of machine 8000 can be distributed over several other machines in a network.

Examples, as described herein, may include or may operate on logic or a number of components, modules or mechanisms. Modules are concrete units that are capable of performing specific operations and can be configured or arranged in a certain way. In one example, circuits may be arranged (eg, internally or with respect to external devices such as other circuits) in a specified manner as a module. In one example, all or parts of one or more computer systems (eg, a stand-alone, client, or server system) or one or more hardware processors can be configured by hardcoding or software (eg, instructions, an application part, or an application) as a module that works for the purpose of

545 113 perform specific functions. In one example, the software may reside (1) in a non-volatile machine-readable medium or (2) in a transmission signal. In one example, the software when executed by underlying hardware in the module causes the hardware to perform specific operations.

Similarly, the term module shall be interpreted as including a concrete unit, being a unit that is physically constructed, specifically configured (eg, hard-coded), or temporarily (eg, transiently) configured (eg, programmed) to operate in a specific way or to perform some or all of the operations described here. By considering examples in which the modules are temporarily configured, each of the modules need not be instantiated at any particular time. For example, where modules include a generally usable hardware processor that is configured using software, the generally usable hardware processor can be configured as one or more modules that may vary over time. Software can similarly configure a hardware processor, for example to constitute a certain module at one time and constitute another module at another time.

The machine (eg, computer system) 8000 may include a hardware processor 8002 (eg, a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 8004, and a static memory 8006, some or all of which can communicate with each other via a bus 8008. The machine 8000 may further include a display unit 8010, an alphanumeric input device 8012 (for example, a keyboard), a user interface control device (user interface, Ul) 8014, and/or other input devices. In one example, the display unit 8010 and Ul control device 8014 can be a so-called touchscreen or touch screen display. The machine 8000 may also include a storage device (eg, a hard disk drive) 8016, a signal generation device 8018 (eg, a microphone), and a network interface device 8020.

The storage device 8016 may include a machine-readable medium 8022 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 8024 (eg, software) that implement or utilize one or more of the techniques or functions described herein.

The instructions 8024 may also reside, in whole or at least in part, within main memory

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8004, within the static memory 8006, or within the hardware processor 8002 during execution thereof in the machine 8000.1 example, one or any of the combinations of the hardware processor 8002, the main memory 8004, the static memory 8006, or the storage device 8016 may constitute machine-readable media.

While the machine-readable medium 8022 is illustrated as a single medium, the term machine-readable medium may include a single medium or a plurality of media (eg, a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated buffers and servers) configured to store the single or the majority of instructions 8024.

The term machine-readable medium may include any tangible medium capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for the execution of the machine 8000 and capable of causing the machine 8000 to perform any one or more of the techniques described herein, or which is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting machine readable media and examples thereof may include solid state memories, optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of machine-readable media may include: non-volatile memories, such as semiconductor memory devices (eg, Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), and flash memory devices); magnetic disks, such as internal hard drives and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs.

The instructions 8024 can further be sent or received via a communication network 8026 using a transmission medium via the network interface device 8020. The network interface device 8020 can interface the machine 8000 with a network of other machines to communicate with the other machines in the network by using any of a number of transfer protocols (eg, frame forwarding, internet protocol (IP), transmission control protocol , TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc). Exemplary communications networks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a

545 113 packet data networks (such as the Internet), mobile telephone networks (such as cellular networks), plain old telephone service (Plain Old Telephone, POTS) networks, and wireless data networks (such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE) 802.11 family of standards known as WiFi ®, the IEEE 802.16 family of standards known as WiMax®, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, and a host of others. In one example, the network interface device 8020 may include one or more physical connectors (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or telephone jack) or one or more antennas to interconnect the communication network 8026.1 an example, and which is further shown in FIG. 8, the network interface device 8020 may include a plurality of antennas (not shown) to wirelessly communicate using at least one single-input multiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple- output (MIMO), or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. The term transmission medium shall be construed to include any unspecified medium capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution of the machine 8000, and includes digital or analog communication signals or other unspecified medium to enable communication for such software.

OTHER PROVISIONS AND EXAMPLES

Example 1: Described is a user equipment (User Equipment, UE) which includes a response module which is arranged to receive one or more downlink assignments for a bundling window via a wireless downlink control channel; setting a reception status for each subframe of a downlink data channel in the bundling window based on whether the subframe of the downlink data channel was associated with a certain of the downlink assignments and based on whether the subframe was received successfully; and setting a reception status of subframes of the downlink data channel in the bundling window that did not have a corresponding downlink assignment to a predetermined value; and a transmission module arranged to send a response, the response being based on reception statuses set by the response module.

Example 2: UE according to Example 1, wherein the reception status is one of: acknowledgment (ACK), negative acknowledgment (NACK), and discontinuous reception (DTX).

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Example 3: UE according to any of Examples 1-2, wherein the predetermined value is a value indicating a discontinuous transmission (discontinuous transmission, DTX).

Example 4: UE according to any of Examples 1-3, wherein the UE is arranged to operate in a Time Division Duplex (TDD) state and wherein the transmission module is arranged to send the response using a physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel , PUCCH) format lb.

Example 5: UE according to any of Examples 1-4, wherein the bundling window is larger than 2 subframes.

Example 6: The UE according to any of Examples 1-5, wherein the transmission module is arranged to send the response by selecting a PUCCH uplink resource, a constellation and a set of code bits based on the reception statuses.

Example 7: UE according to any of Examples 1-6, wherein the UE is arranged to communicate with a wireless network using a Long Term Evolution (LTE) family of standards.

Example 8: UE according to any of Examples 1-7, wherein the UE is arranged to utilize carrier aggregation with two handling cell configurations.

Example 9: Described is a method comprising determining for each index j for a plurality of downlink subframes whether one or more received downlink assignment index (DAI) values ​​are equal to j + p, where one or more DAl values ​​have been received via a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), where j &lt; Ml, and M is a number of subframes in a HARQ. stacking window, where p is a constant; setting the receive status of the subframe corresponding to j to a predetermined value in response to determining that none of the one or more DAl values ​​is equal to j + 1; and send the reception status of each of the plurality of downlink subframes to the stacking window M.

Example 10: The method according to Example 9, wherein the predetermined value is a value indicating a discontinuous transmission (DTX).

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Example 11: The method according to any of Examples 9-10, comprising: determining whether there is a Primary Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmission in a primary cell without a corresponding PDCCH detected within the bundling window; in response to determining that it is a PDSCH without a corresponding PDCCH, set p to 0; in response to determining that there are no PDSCHs without a corresponding PDCCH, set p to 1.

Example 12: The method according to any of Examples 9-11, wherein the reception statuses are sent using a physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH) format lb.

Example 13: The method according to any of Examples 9-12, comprising sending the reception statuses by selecting at least one PUCCH uplink resource, a constellation, and a set of code bits based on the reception statuses.

Example 14: Described is a user equipment (User Equipment, UE) comprising: a hybrid automatic repeat request (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ.) module arranged to: for each index j for a number of downlink subframes: determining if one or more received downlink assignment index (DAI) values ​​are equal to j + p, where p is a constant and where one or more DAl values ​​are received via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) , where j &lt; M - 1, and where M is a number of subframes in a HARQ. bursting window, determine a receive status for the subframe corresponding to ji response to determining that one of the one or more DAl values ​​is equal to j + p , and setting the receive status of the subframe corresponding to j to a predetermined value in response to determining that none of the one or more DAl values ​​is equal to j + p; and a transmission module arranged to send the reception status of each of the plurality of downlink subframes ji the stacking window M.

Example 15: UE according to Example 14, wherein the reception status is one of: acknowledgment (ACK), negative acknowledgment (NACK), and discontinuous reception (DTX).

Example 16: The UE according to any of Examples 14-15, wherein the predetermined value is a value indicating a discontinuous transmission (DTX).

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Example 17: The UE according to any of Examples 14-16, wherein the predetermined value is a value different from a value indicating an ACK, a NACK, and a DTX.

Example 18: The UE according to any of Examples 14-17, wherein the predetermined value is a value randomly selected from one of the values ​​indicating an ACK, a NACK, and a DTX.

Example 19: UE according to any of Examples 14-18, wherein the UE is arranged to operate in a time division duplex (Time Division Duplex, TDD) state.

Example 20: UE according to any of Examples 14-19, wherein the UE is arranged to multiplex HARQ reception statuses.

Example 21: UE according to any of Examples 14-20, wherein the transmission module is arranged to send the reception statuses using a physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH) format lb.

Example 22: The UE according to any of Examples 14-21, wherein the HARQ. module is further arranged to: determine if there is a Primary Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmission on a primary cell without a corresponding PDCCH detected within the bundling window; in response to determining that there is a PDSCH without a corresponding PDCCH, set p to 0; respond to determine that there is no PDSCH but a corresponding PDCCH, set p to 1.

Example 23: The UE according to any of Examples 14-22, wherein the transmission module is arranged to send the reception status by selecting a PUCCH uplink resource, a constellation and a set of code bits based on the reception statuses.

Example 24: UE according to any of Examples 14-23, wherein the UE is arranged to communicate with a wireless network using a Long Term Evolution, (LTE) family of standards.