Group based PDCCH capability for LTE
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorsMatthew William Webb, Hideji Wakabayashi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A group-based PDCCH capability in LTE. Information common to a group of UEs, such as those common to a virtual carrier, may be signalled in a group search space within the PDCCH. This common information may include the location of a further control region embedded in the virtual carrier which contains UE-specific information for access the resources of the virtual carrier. Additional methods assign UEs a group identity by implicit signalling, and determine the aggregation level of the group-based PDCCH search space.
Claims14
A mobile terminal comprising a processor and a receiver configured to receive data from a wireless communications system via a wireless access interface, the mobile terminal belonging to a predetermined group of mobile terminals, the wireless access interface providing a plurality of communications resource elements across a first frequency range, wherein
- the wireless access interface includes a plurality of time divided sub-frames, and at least one of the sub-frames includes:
- a first control region in a first part of the sub-frame for communicating first signaling information to one or more of the mobile terminals, the first control region including a plurality of control channel resource elements, a first subset of said control channel resource elements providing a group control channel, the group control channel being associated with a group identifier and at least partially encoded using the group identifier;
- and
- a second control region in a second part of the sub-frame, distinct from the first part of the sub-frame, the second control region being for communicating second signaling information to the predetermined group of the mobile terminals, and
- the group control channel contains information indicative of the location of the second control region, said information being accessible by applying the group identifier to the group control channel,
- membership of the predetermined group is indicated by the use of the group identifier,
- the processor operates to locate the group control channel within the first control region using the group identifier;
- and
- the group identifier is deduced from a relationship between a first preamble signature indicated in a random access preamble message received by a base station from a terminal and a second preamble signature indicated in a random access response message transmitted by the base station to the terminal in reply to the random access preamble message.
A method performed by a mobile terminal comprising a processor and a receiver configured to receive data from a wireless communications system via a wireless access interface, the mobile terminal belonging to a predetermined group of mobile terminals, the wireless access interface providing a plurality of communications resource elements across a first frequency range, the method comprising:
- receiving, by the receiver via the wireless access interface, a plurality of time divided sub-frames, at least one of the sub-frames including:
- a first control region in a first part of the sub-frame for communicating first signaling information to one or more of the mobile terminals, the first control region including a plurality of control channel resource elements, a first subset of said control channel resource elements providing a group control channel, the group control channel being associated with a group identifier and at least partially encoded using the group identifier;
- and
- a second control region in a second part of the sub-frame, distinct from the first part of the sub-frame, the second control region being for communicating second signaling information to the predetermined group of the mobile terminals, wherein
- the group control channel contains information indicative of the location of the second control region, said information being accessible by applying the group identifier to the group control channel, and
- membership of the predetermined group is indicated by the use of the group identifier;
- and
- locating the group control channel within the first control region using the group identifier, wherein
- the group identifier is deduced from a relationship between a first preamble signature indicated in a random access preamble message received by a base station from a terminal and a second preamble signature indicated in a random access response message transmitted by the base station to the terminal in reply to the random access preamble message.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.