# US 2019/0173618 A1 · Systems and methods for carrier aggregation

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- Number: US 2019/0173618 A1
- Document ID: US20190173618A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 16/273,695
- Filed: 2019-02-12
- Published: 2019-06-06
- Earliest claimed: 2013-07-19
- Assignees: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
- Applicants: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
- Inventors: Zhanping Yin; Shohei Yamada; John Michael Kowalski
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20190173618A1

## CPC

- H04L 1/1812: Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
- H04L 1/1854: {Scheduling and prioritising arrangements}
- H04L 5/001: {the frequencies being arranged in component carriers}
- H04L 5/0055: {Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK (for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861)}
- H04L 1/1858: {Transmission or retransmission of more than one copy of acknowledgement message}
- H04L 5/1469: {using time-sharing}
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)

## Abstract

A User Equipment (UE) for performing carrier aggregation is described. The UE includes a processor and instructions stored in memory that is in electronic communication with the processor. The UE determines a duplex method of each serving cell for frequency-division duplexing (FDD) and time-division duplexing (TDD) carrier aggregation. At least one serving cell is a TDD cell and at least one serving cell is a FDD cell. The UE also determines physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) transmission timing for a serving cell. When a primary cell is a TDD cell, the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the serving cell is determined based on a downlink (DL) association set for the serving cell. The UE further sends PDSCH HARQ-ACK information based on the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A user equipment (UE) for performing carrier aggregation, comprising:
a processor;
a memory in electronic communication with the processor, wherein instructions stored in the memory are executable to:
determine a duplex method of each of at least two serving cells for carrier aggregation, wherein a primary cell of the at least two serving cells is a time-division duplexing (TDD) cell and a secondary cell of the at least two serving cells is a frequency-division duplexing (FDD) cell;
determine a primary cell uplink/downlink (UL/DL) configuration, wherein the primary cell UL/DL configuration is one of UL/DL configurations 0 through 6;
determine a downlink (DL) association set for the primary cell and a downlink (DL) association set for the secondary cell based on the primary cell UL/DL configuration;
determine physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) transmission timing for the primary cell, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the primary cell is determined based on the DL association set for the primary cell;
determine PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell is determined based on the DL association set for the secondary cell;
generate PDSCH HARQ-ACK information of the primary cell and the secondary cell based on the DL association set for the primary cell and the DL association set for the secondary cell; and
send the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information in a subframe which corresponds to (a) the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the primary cell and (b) the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell.

### Claim 2

An evolved Node B (eNB) for performing carrier aggregation, comprising:
a processor;
a memory in electronic communication with the processor, wherein instructions stored in the memory are executable to:
determine a duplex method of each of at least two serving cells for carrier aggregation, wherein a primary cell of the at least two serving cells is a time-division duplexing (TDD) cell and a secondary cell of the at least two serving cells is a frequency-division duplexing (FDD) cell;
determine a primary cell uplink/downlink (UL/DL) configuration, wherein the primary cell UL/DL configuration is one of UL/DL configurations 0 through 6;
determine a downlink (DL) association set for the primary cell and a downlink (DL) association set for the secondary cell based on the primary cell UL/DL configuration;
determine physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) transmission timing for the primary cell, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the primary cell is determined based on the DL association set for the primary cell;
determine PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell is determined based on the DL association set for the secondary cell; and
receive PDSCH HARQ-ACK information of the primary cell and the secondary cell in a subframe which corresponds to (a) the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the primary cell and (b) the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information of the primary cell and the secondary cell is generated based on the DL association set for the primary cell and the DL association set for the secondary cell.

### Claim 3

A method of performing carrier aggregation by a user equipment (UE), comprising:
determining a duplex method of each of at least two serving cells for carrier aggregation, wherein a primary cell of the at least two serving cells is a time-division duplexing (TDD) cell and a secondary cell of the at least two serving cells is a frequency-division duplexing (FDD) cell;
determining a primary cell uplink/downlink (UL/DL) configuration, wherein the primary cell UL/DL configuration is one of UL/DL configurations 0 through 6;
determining a downlink (DL) association set for the primary cell and a downlink (DL) association set for the secondary cell based on the primary cell UL/DL configuration;
determining physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) transmission timing for the primary cell, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the primary cell is determined based on the DL association set for the primary cell;
determining PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell is determined based on the DL association set for the secondary cell;
generating PDSCH HARQ-ACK information of the primary cell and the secondary cell based on the DL association set for the primary cell and the DL association set for the secondary cell; and
sending the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information in a subframe which corresponds to (a) the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the primary cell and (b) the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell.

### Claim 4

A method of performing carrier aggregation by an evolved Node B (eNB), comprising:
determining a duplex method of each of at least two serving cells for carrier aggregation, wherein a primary cell of the at least two serving cells is a time-division duplexing (TDD) cell and a secondary cell of the at least two serving cells is a frequency-division duplexing (FDD) cell;
determining a primary cell uplink/downlink (UL/DL) configuration, wherein the primary cell UL/DL configuration is one of UL/DL configurations 0 through 6;
determining a downlink (DL) association set for the primary cell and a downlink (DL) association set for the secondary cell based on the primary cell UL/DL configuration;
determining physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) transmission timing for the primary cell, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the primary cell is determined based on the DL association set for the primary cell;
determining PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell is determined based on the DL association set for the secondary cell; and
receiving PDSCH HARQ-ACK information of the primary cell and the secondary cell in a subframe which corresponds to (a) the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the primary cell and (b) the PDSCH HARQ-ACK transmission timing for the secondary cell, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information of the primary cell and the secondary cell is generated based on the DL association set for the primary cell and the DL association set for the secondary cell.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information is sent on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

### Claim 6 (depends on 2)

The eNB of claim 2, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information is received on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

### Claim 7 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information is sent on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

### Claim 8 (depends on 4)

The method of claim 4, wherein the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information is received on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).