Apparatus having medium access control layer architecture for supporting enhanced uplink

Device with support for enhanced upper chain media access control layer structure

This creation is about a wireless communication device, such as a wireless transmission/reception unit (hereinafter referred to as WTRU) that communicates with a Node B. This creation is particularly about the structure and function of the media access control (hereinafter referred to as MAC) layer used to support enhanced uplink (EU) in the wireless communication system.

Methods to improve the coverage, production capacity and transmission delay time of the upper chain (hereinafter referred to as UL) have been studied in the third generation partnership project (3GPP) version 6 (R6). In order to successfully implement these methods, the scheduling and allocation of UL physical resources will be moved from a radio network controller (hereinafter referred to as RNC) to a Node B, so that Node B will determine and manage UL radio resources on a short-range basis than RNC It is more efficient, even if the RNC maintains overall control of the Node B.

In a shared time slot, one or more independent UL transmissions will be processed on the enhanced dedicated channel (hereinafter referred to as E-DCH). The enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) is between the WTRU and a global mobile communications system (UMTS) between terrestrial wireless access networks (hereinafter referred to as UTRAN). One example is a MAC layer hybrid automatic repeat request (hereinafter referred to as H-ARQ), or a simple MAC layer ARQ operation, where each individual transmission may require a different number of retransmissions before it can be successfully received by the UTRAN .

This creation is about a WTRU that communicates with a Node B. The WTRU has an improved MAC layer structure and function to support EU. This new EU MAC entity called MAC-e entity is defined and integrated into a WTRU, a Node B, and an RNC. The WTRU MAC-e is responsible for handling H-ARQ transmission and retransmission, priority processing, MAC-e multiplexing transmission, and selection of transport format combinations (hereinafter referred to as TFC). The Node BMAC-e entity is responsible for processing H-ARQ transmission and retransmission, enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) scheduling, and MAC-e demultiplexing transmission. The RNC MAC-e entity provides sequential transmission and is responsible for processing data combinations from different Node Bs.

The WTRU MAC-e includes an EU rate request/allocation entity, a priority processing entity, a TFC selection entity, and an H-ARQ entity. The EU rate request/allocation entity sends a rate request to a node B to transmit data via E-DCH and process the rate grant received by the node B. The priority processing entity manages the distribution of the data and based on the data One of the transmission priorities of the H-ARQ program, the TFC selection entity selects one of the data TFCs, and the H-ARQ entity retransmits the data based on the retransmission feedback from one of the Node Bs. The node BMAC-e includes a scheduler, a demultiplexer and an H-ARQ entity.

Hereafter, the term "WTRU" includes but is not limited to a user equipment (hereinafter referred to as UE), a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a pager, or any type of device that can operate in a wireless environment . When this article refers to the dedicated term "Node B" hereinafter, it includes but is not limited to a base station, a site controller, an access point, or any interface device that you meet in a wireless environment.

The features of this creation can be integrated into an integrated circuit (hereinafter referred to as IC), or arranged on a circuit containing many interconnected components.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication system 10 according to the present invention. The system 10 includes a WTRU 100, a Node B 200, and an RNC 300. The RNC 300 controls the overall EU operation by configuring the EU parameters of the Node B 200 and the WTRU 100, such as the initial transmission power level, the maximum allowable EU transmission power, or the available channel resources of each Node B, in the WTRU 100 and the WTRU 100. Between Node B 200, an E-DCH 102 is established to support EU transmission.

Regarding E-DCH transmission, the WTRU 100 sends a rate request to the Node B 200 via a UL EU signal channel 104, and in response, the Node B 200 sends a rate via a downlink (DL) EU signal channel 106 Granted to the WTRU 100. After the EU radio resources are allocated to the WTRU 100, the WTRU 100 transmits E-DCH data via the E-DCH 102. In response to E-DCH transmission, the Node B sends an H-ARQ via the DLEU signal channel 106 For operation acknowledgement (ACK) messages or non-acknowledgement (NACK) messages, the Node B 200 can also grant the response rate to the WTRU 100 in response to the E-DCH data transmission.

Figure 2 is a block diagram of the communication protocol structure of E-DCH 102 based on this creation. A new EU MAC entity called MAC-e is designed in the WTRU 100, the Node B 200, and the RNC 300 to handle all functions related to E-DCH transmission and reception. A MAC-e entity 120 is integrated into the WTRU 100, and it is between a MAC-d entity 130 and a physical layer (PHY) entity 110. The MAC-e 120 in the WTRU handles H-ARQ transmission and retransmission, priority processing, MAC-e multiplexing, and TFC selection. A MAC-e entity 220 is integrated into the Node B 200, which handles H-ARQ transmission and retransmission, E-DCH scheduling, and MAC-e demultiplexing. A MAC-e entity 320 is integrated into the RNC 300 to provide sequential delivery and process data combinations from different Node Bs.

Figure 3 is a block diagram of the MAC-e 120 structure in the WTRU 100 according to this creation. The WTRU MAC-e 120 includes an EU rate request/allocation entity 122, a priority processing entity 124, and a TFC selection entity 126 and an H-ARQ entity 128. It is worth noting that Figure 3 is provided as a preferred embodiment of this creation, and the entity shown in Figure 3 can be integrated into a shared MAC functional entity, and this function can be performed by more or less functional entities.

When the WTRU 100 has E-DCH data waiting to be transmitted via the E-DCH 102, the EU rate request/allocation entity 122 is responsible for requesting radio resources from the Node B 200. The EU rate request may be one of the following: Traffic indicator, a request data rate, a TFC index, and the number of traffic measurement (hereinafter referred to as TVM) for each data stream. The rate request can be sent to the Node B 200 via a physical or MAC layer signal. The rate request is generated based on the radio link control (RLC) data TVM. The TVM can include the data traffic transmitted by the E-DCH, or alternatively It also includes active H-ARQ program data waiting to be retransmitted.

When the WTRU 100 receives a rate grant (that is, rate and/or time schedule) by the Node B 200 (the WTRU may receive rate grants from more than one Node B), the EU rate request/allocation entity 122 will notify the priority The right processing entity 124 has available resources for the data transmission, and the received rate grant will determine the subset of the E-DCH transport format combination set (TFCS), and/or the start time and duration (optional) .

By sending the rate request, the WTRU 100 can request the Node B 200 to change the set of allowed UL TFCs in the TFCS, and the Node B 200 can change the allowed UL TFCs in the TFCS by sending the rate grant. The WTRU 100 may send a scheduling information to update the Node B 200 to provide buffer occupancy and/or available transmission power information so that a scheduling entity 222 in the Node B 200 can determine the appropriate TFCS indicator and Transmission time gap. In order to schedule at a fast rate by continuous control, the Node B 200 may send parameters that represent the effective interference that the system can tolerate, and thus prevent WTRUs in rate control mode from staying away from incoming additional interference. This method can be accomplished by the Node B 200 sending the allowable transmission power of EU transmission that the WTRU 100 can use in the rate grant.

The priority processing entity 124 will manage the allocation of data streams and H-ARQ procedures based on the priority of the data, and based on the transmission feedback from the connected DL EU signal, will determine a new transmission or retransmission, otherwise In addition, a queue identification (ID) of each MAC protocol data unit (hereinafter referred to as PDU) and transmission sequence number (hereinafter referred to as TSN) will also be determined. The TSN is unique to each priority level within an E-DCH, and each new data block is incremented once. Optionally, the priority processing entity 124 can be inserted before the retransmission of the low priority data, and a new retransmission of the higher priority data can be initiated at any time to support priority processing, instead of waiting for the low priority data. Retransmission of data.

The TFC selection entity 126 selects a TFC of the data to be transmitted on the E-DCH 102, which is based on the information sent in the rate grant, and multiplexed multiple MAC-d flows into a MAC-e PDU. The rate grant can be a full grant or a relative grant. The full grant provides a limit on the maximum amount of UL resources that the WTRU may use. The relative grant increases and decreases the resource limit relative to the previous use value.

The TFC selection is limited by the maximum allowable transmission power and the corresponding TFCS subset allowed by the rate granted by the Node B 200. The TFCS selection is based on the logical channel priority, so that the TFC selection can combine high priority data The transmission is maximized. The allowed combination of the MAC-d flow in a MAC-e PDU is configured by the RNC and is also considered in the TFC selection.

The H-ARQ entity 128 handles all tasks that require the H-ARQ communication protocol, and the H-ARQ entity 128 is responsible for storing MAC-e bearers and retransmitting them when the transmission fails. The H-ARQ entity 128 may support multiple entities of the H-ARQ communication protocol (H-ARQ procedure), and the EU configured in the WTRU 100 may have more than one H-ARQ procedure.

According to this creation, it is preferable to perform a synchronous H-ARQ, so the H-ARQ operation is based on synchronous DL ACK and NAK and synchronous retransmission in the UL.

Figure 4 is a block diagram of the MAC-e 220 structure in Node B 200 based on this creation. The Node B MAC-e 220 includes a scheduler 222, a demultiplexer 224, and an H-ARQ entity 226. In the Node B, a MAC-e entity 220 is preferably provided for each WTRU, and a scheduler is preferably provided for each cell. The scheduler 222 manages the E-DCH cells between WTRUs. Meta resources.

The scheduler 222 manages E-DCH resources and H-ARQ procedures among WTRUs. Based on the rate request from the WTRUs 100, the scheduler 222 generates a rate grant and sends it to the WTRUs 100 via the DL EU signal channel 106. The rate grant provides information to determine the set of TFCs that the WTRU 100 may choose, and instructs a WTRU The maximum amount of resources allowed to be used for E-DCH transmission. The scheduler 222 is controlled on the corresponding EU signal channel to receive the rate request and transmit the rate grant. Otherwise, a separate control entity (not shown in the figure) is provided in the Node B MAC-e 220 for receiving The rate request and the rate grant are transmitted, and the scheduler 222 can be provided outside the Node B MAC-e 220.

The demultiplexer 224 demultiplexes MAC-e PDUs into MAC-d PDUs. The multiplexing of MAC-d flows to MAC-e PDUs is supported in the WTRU 100, and multiple MAC-d flows can be allocated to A WTRU can also be multiplexed by the RNC 300 into a MAC-e PAU. The MAC-e PDUs of the multiplexed process are demultiplexed by the demultiplexer 224 into a MAC-d stream, and the node B demultiplexes It can cause MAC-d or RLC PDU reordering, and the MAC-e PDU reordering can be performed by the RNC 300.

The reordering can be performed in the Node B MAC-e, where the number of H-ARQ procedures can be known, or it can be performed in the RNC MAC-e. Referring back to Figure 2, the RNC MAC-e 320 includes a reordering entity for reordering received MAC-e PDUs based on the received transmission sequence number (TSN). MAC-e PDUs with continuous TSNs are sent to the teardown function, while PDUs with a missing lower TSN will not be sent to the teardown function. The teardown function removes the MAC before sending it to the higher layer. -E header, the RNC 300 includes multiple reordering queues for reordering PDUs with different priority levels.

The reordering is performed in the RNC MAC-e. The Node B 200 transmits the number of H-ARQ procedures and the successfully decoded data to the RNC 300. The H-ARQ procedure can undoubtedly be passed to the RNC for reception by the Node B. As time knows, the number of H-ARQ procedures can be obtained by a system frame number (SFN) or a connection frame number (CFN), and the H-ARQ procedure configuration mechanism in the WTRU 100.

The H-ARQ entity 226 generates ACKs and NACKs to indicate the delivery status of the E-DCH transmission. An H-ARQ entity can support multiple entities that stop and wait for the H-ARQ communication protocol.

Figure 5 is a block diagram of the MAC-e structure of the accompanying signal procedure between the WTRU 100 and the Node B 200 according to this creation. When the WTRU MAC-e 120 receives data from the WTRU RLC layer 140 and wants to transmit via an E-DCH 102 (step 502), the EU rate request entity 122 sends a rate request to the Node B 200 (step 504), the Node B 200 grants a response at a rate (step 506). Based on the received rate grant, the EU rate request entity 122 notifies the priority processing unit 124 that there are available wireless resources for the data transmission (step 508), the priority processing unit 124 then multiplexes the data, and according to The priority of the data is assigned an H-ARQ program, and the TFC of the data will be selected by the TFC selection entity (steps 510, 512), and the data will be transmitted through the E-DCH 102 with the assigned H-ARQ program (Step 514), the Node B 200 sends a feedback signal through the DL EU signal channel 106 (Step 516). If the feedback signal is a NACK, then the data can be retransmitted autonomously (Step 518), or in the receiving Retransmit after granting other rates (step 520).

Although the features and elements of this creation are all described in specific combinations in the embodiments, each feature or element in the embodiment can be used alone, without being combined with other features or elements, and can also be combined with/without the creation Other features and components are combined in different ways.

Although this creation has been described through preferred embodiments, other variations that do not depart from the scope of the patent application of this creation are obvious to those who are familiar with this technique.

<p>10. . . system</p><p>104, 106. . . Signal channel</p><p>122. . . EU rate request/dispatch entity</p><p>124. . . Priority processing entity</p><p>126. . . Select entity</p><p>128. . . H-ARQ entity</p><p>200. . . Node B</p><p>222. . . Scheduler</p><p>224. . . Demultiplexer</p><p>226. . . H-ARQ entity</p><p>WTRU. . . Wireless transmission/receiving unit</p><p>RNC. . . Wireless network controller</p><p>EU. . . Enhanced chain</p><p>E-DCH. . . Enhanced dedicated channel</p><p>MAC. . . Media access control</p>

Figure 1 shows the block diagram of the wireless communication system based on this creation; Figure 2 shows the block diagram of the communication protocol structure of the WTRU based on this creation; Figure 3 shows the MAC in the WTRU based on this creation- The block diagram of the e structure; Figure 4 shows the block diagram of the MAC-e structure in Node B according to this creation; and Figure 5 shows the block diagram of the MAC-e structure between WTRU and Node B, WTRU and Node B according to this creation, and The block diagram of the MAC-e structure of signal processing.