Base station and method for controlling radio resources allocation

Abstract

The invention relates to a base station, comprising: a transceiver for multi-carrier radio transmission within a radio frequency band, the transceiver being adapted to receive service quality requests of a plurality of users requesting service from the base station; and a radio resource controller being adapted to allocate subcarriers of the multi-carrier radio transmission to the users and configure the subcarriers in the radio frequency band according to the service quality requests of the users.

Claims

1. A base station, comprising: a transceiver capable of performing multi-carrier radio transmission within a radio frequency band, wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a service quality request from each of a plurality of user equipment devices requesting a service quality from the base station; and a radio resource controller, configured to dynamically allocate a subcarrier of the multi-carrier radio transmission to each of the user equipment devices and dynamically configure a pulse shape of the subcarrier in response to the service quality request of the user equipment device; wherein the service quality request of a user equipment device comprises information of at least one of the following: a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the user equipment device; a mobility of the user equipment device; a synchronization capability of the user equipment device; a battery status of the user equipment device; and a bandwidth requirement of the user equipment device.

2. The base station of claim 1, wherein the radio resource controller reconfigures the pulse shape of the subcarrier in response to a further service quality request of the user equipment device requesting a different service quality.

3. The base station of claim 1, wherein the radio resource controller dynamically allocates a subcarrier to each of the user equipment devices in at least one of the following ways: pulse forming subcarriers to be allocated to the user equipment devices; spacing the subcarriers in the frequency band; selecting a cyclic prefix (CP) for each subcarrier; selecting a guard band between two subcarriers allocated to two neighboring user equipment devices; selecting a guard band width between two subcarriers allocated to two neighboring user equipment devices; and selecting a transmission mode for the user equipment device.

4. The base station of claim 1, wherein the radio resource controller dynamically configures the pulse shape of the subcarrier according to at least one of the following: an Offset Quadrature Amplitude Modulation-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OQAM-OFDM) transmission scheme; a Cyclic Prefix-OFDM (CP-OFDM) transmission scheme; a Zero Padding OFDM transmission scheme; a Faster-Than-Nyquist (FTN) transmission scheme; and a priority of the user equipment device.

5. The base station of claim 1, wherein user equipment devices requesting a same service quality are grouped in a same user equipment group.

6. The base station of claim 1, wherein the transceiver is configured for at least one of a filter-bank based multi-carrier radio transmission and a Faster-Than-Nyquist (FTN) transmission.

7. The base station of claim 1, wherein the radio resource controller dynamically configures a subcarrier according to a Faster-Than-Nyquist (FTN) mode when the subcarrier is allocated to a user equipment device whose transceiver supports the FTN mode.

8. The base station of claim 1, wherein the radio resource controller dynamically configures a subcarrier according to a Filter Bank based Multi Carrier (FBMC) mode when the subcarrier is allocated to a user equipment device whose transceiver supports the FBMC mode.

9. The base station of claim 1, wherein the radio resource controller dynamically configures the pulse shape of the subcarrier according to a Cyclic Prefix-OFDM (CP-OFDM) mode when the subcarrier is allocated to a user equipment device whose transceiver supports neither a Filter Bank based Multi Carrier (FBMC) mode nor a Faster-Than-Nyquist (FTN) mode.

10. The base station of claim 1, wherein the radio resource controller dynamically configures the pulse shape of the subcarrier according to a Cyclic Prefix-OFDM (CP-OFDM) mode when the subcarrier is allocated to a user equipment device underlying an energy constraint.

11. The base station of claim 1, wherein the radio resource controller dynamically configures the pulse shape of the subcarrier according to a Filter Bank based Multi Carrier (FBMC) mode when the subcarrier is allocated to a user equipment device whose moving speed is higher than a predetermined threshold or whose synchronization capabilities are below a predetermined level and whose transceiver supports the FBMC mode.

12. A method for controlling radio resource allocation by a base station, wherein the base station is capable of performing multi-carrier radio transmission within a radio frequency band, the method comprising: receiving, by the base station, a service quality request from each of a plurality of user equipment devices requesting a service quality; dynamically allocating, by the base station, a subcarrier of the multi-carrier radio transmission to each of the user equipment devices; and dynamically configuring, by the base station, a pulse shape of the subcarrier in response to the service quality request of the user equipment device; wherein the service quality request of a user equipment device comprises information of at least one of the following: a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the user equipment device; a mobility of the user equipment device; a synchronization capability of the user equipment device; a battery status of the user equipment device; and a bandwidth requirement of the user equipment device.

13. An apparatus for prioritizing user equipment traffic, comprising: a transceiver capable of performing multi-carrier transmission within a frequency band, the transceiver being configured to receive a service quality request from each of a plurality of user equipment devices requesting a service quality; and a bandwidth controller being configured to dynamically allocate a subcarrier of the multi-carrier transmission to each of the user equipment devices and dynamically configure a pulse shape of the subcarrier in response to the service quality request of the user equipment device based on a user-specific priority assigned to each user equipment device; wherein the service quality request of a user equipment device comprises information of at least one of the following: a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the user equipment device; a mobility of the user equipment device; a synchronization capability of the user equipment device; a battery status of the user equipment device; and a bandwidth requirement of the user equipment device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the base station dynamically configures the pulse shape of the subcarrier in response to the service quality request of the user equipment device based on a user-specific priority assigned to each user equipment device.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising: reconfiguring, by the base station, the pulse shape of the subcarrier in response to a further service quality request of the user equipment device requesting a different service quality.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein dynamically allocating a subcarrier to each of the user equipment devices comprises at least one of the following: pulse forming subcarriers to be allocated to the user equipment devices; spacing the subcarriers in the frequency band; selecting a cyclic prefix (CP) for each subcarrier; selecting a guard band between two subcarriers allocated to two neighboring user equipment devices; selecting a guard band width between two subcarriers allocated to two neighboring user equipment devices; and selecting a transmission mode for the user equipment device.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Further embodiments of the invention will be described with respect to the following figures, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of abase station 100 according to an implementation form;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a method 200 for controlling radio resources allocation in base station according to an implementation form;

(4) FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a method 300 for radio resources allocation to different users according to an implementation form;

(5) FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a radio resources allocation algorithm for two users 401, 403 within a macro cell 400 according to an implementation form;

(6) FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of an apparatus 500 for prioritizing user traffic according to an implementation form; and

(7) FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a method 600 for prioritizing user traffic according to an implementation form.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(8) FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a base station 100 according to an implementation form.

(9) The base station 100 comprises a transceiver 101 and a radio resource controller 103. The transceiver is used for multi-carrier radio transmission within a radio frequency band. The transceiver 101 receives service quality requests 102 of a plurality of users requesting service from the base station 100. The radio resource controller 103 allocates subcarriers of the multi-carrier radio transmission to the users and configures the subcarriers in the radio frequency band according to the service quality requests 102 of the users. The transceiver 101 forwards 104 the service quality requests 102 to the radio resource controller 103.

(10) In an implementation form of the base station 100, the radio resource controller 103 reconfigures the subcarriers in the radio frequency band responsive to a service quality request of a user requesting a different service quality, i.e. a service quality different from the service quality requested by the last request. In an implementation form of the base station 100, the configuring the subcarriers comprises at least one of the following: pulse forming the subcarriers, spacing the subcarriers in the frequency band, selecting a CP, selecting a guard band between two subcarriers allocated to neighboring users, selecting a guard band width between two subcarriers allocated to neighboring users, selecting a transmission mode for each user. In an implementation form of the base station 100, the radio resource controller 103 configures the subcarriers according to at least one of the following: an OQAM-OFDM transmission scheme, a CP-OFDM transmission scheme, a Zero Padding OFDM transmission scheme, an FTN transmission scheme, a priority of the users. In an implementation form of the base station 100, the users are assigned to user groups. In an implementation form of the base station 100, the transceiver 101 performs transmission and reception according to a filter-bank based multi-carrier radio transmission. In an implementation form of the base station 100, the service quality request of a user comprises information on at least one of the following: an SNR of the user, a mobility of the user, a synchronization capability of the user, a battery status of the user, a bandwidth requirement of the user.

(11) In an implementation form of the base station 100, the radio resource controller 103 configures a subcarrier according to an FTN mode when the subcarrier is allocated to a user whose link SNR is larger than a predetermined threshold and whose transceiver supports FTN mode. In an implementation form of the base station 100, the radio resource controller 103 configures a subcarrier according to an FBMC mode when the subcarrier is allocated from edges of the radio frequency band to a user whose transceiver supports FBMC mode. In an implementation form of the base station 100, the radio resource controller 103 configures a subcarrier according to a CP-OFDM mode when the subcarrier is allocated to a user whose transceiver neither supports FBMC mode nor FTN mode. In an implementation form of the base station 100, the radio resource controller 103 configures a subcarrier according to a CP-OFDM mode when the subcarrier is allocated to a user underlying an energy constraint. In an implementation form of the base station 100, the radio resource controller 103 configures a subcarrier according to an FBMC mode when the subcarrier is allocated to a user whose moving speed is higher than a predetermined threshold or whose synchronization capabilities are below a predetermined level and whose transceiver supports FBMC mode. In an implementation form of the base station 100, the configuring the subcarriers in the radio frequency band is based on a user-specific priority assigned to each user.

(12) FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a method 200 for controlling radio resources allocation in a base station with a transceiver for multi-carrier radio transmission within a radio frequency band according to an implementation form. The method 200 comprises receiving 201 service quality requests of a plurality of users requesting service from the base station. The method 200 comprises allocating 203 subcarriers of the multi-carrier radio transmission to the users. The method 200 comprises configuring 205 the subcarriers in the radio frequency band according to the service quality requests of the users.

(13) In an implementation form, the method 200 provides an adaptive transmission scheme to allocate the waveform and the transmission mode according to each link/user/user-group's channel, traffic and terminal type conditions and its corresponding transceiver structure. The users request from a cellular system, e.g. a base station, a service meeting a specific QoS criteria. Additionally, information on its current signal link and system conditions are provided. In an implementation form, the information comprises one or more of the following items: a delay spread of the channel, a Doppler spread of the channel, a noise figure of the channel and/or the receiver, constraints on power consumption, e.g., battery status, user terminal class, providing information on its capability, e.g., bandwidth, maximal modulation order, support FTN mode or not, support FBMC mode or not, support CP-OFDM mode or not. By taking into account all user requests and their reported requirements, the base station selects an optimal system configuration that aims to satisfy all user demands at minimum cost in terms of used system resources. In an implementation form, the method 200 comprises partitioning the users into groups with similar requirements or conditions. In an implementation form, the method 200 comprises selecting the appropriate configuration of transmission scheme for each user group and configuring that configuration for the bandwidth required. In an implementation form of the method 200, the configuring the subcarriers in the radio frequency band is based on a user-specific priority assigned to each user.

(14) Due to the property of spectral shaping for FBMC signaling with low out of band radiation, different configurations of the transmission scheme can coexist in the same frequency band without the need of large or even any guard-bands. In an implementation form of the method 200, the additional parameters considered for the adaptive transmission are one or more of the following: Used pulse shapes and their level of orthogonality, use of FTN (yes/no) and level of orthogonality, subcarrier spacing, complexity (affecting the demand on processing power) and length of CP in case of CP-OFDM mode.

(15) Thus, the method 200 provides an adaptive transmission scheme that dynamically adjusts the transceiver configuration including FBMC modes, pulse shapes, FTN modes, etc. for each user individually during the transmission process, according to the conditions listed above.

(16) FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a method 300 for radio resources allocation to different symbol users according to an implementation form. FIG. 3 illustrates the configuration at the base station to serve four different users which are user 1 (U1, 340), user 2 (U2, 342), user 3 (U3, 344) and user 4 (U4, 346) on individually configured links 330, 332, 334, 336 for data transmission.

(17) The symbols of User 1 are input to an OQAM mapper 301 performing an OQAM to provide OQAM mapped symbols of User 1 at an output of the OQAM mapper 301. The OQAM mapped symbols of User 1 pass an FTN mapper 305 providing FTN mapped symbols for User 1.

(18) The symbols of User 2 are input to the OQAM mapper 301 performing an OQAM to provide OQAM mapped symbols of User 2 at an output of the OQAM mapper 301. The FTM mapped symbols for User 1 and the OQAM mapped symbols of User 2 are input to an Inverse Fast Fourier Transformation (IFFT) block 311, wherein neighboring symbols of User 1 and User 2 are separated by a guard band 307. The symbols processed by the IFFT 311 are filtered by a PPN processing unit 317 providing subcarriers for User 1 and User 2.

(19) The symbols of User 3 are input to an OQAM mapper 303 performing an OQAM to provide OQAM mapped symbols of User 3 at an output of the OQAM mapper 303. The OQAM mapped symbols of User 3 are input to an IFFT block 313. The symbols processed by the IFFT block 313 are filtered by a Poly-phase Network (PPN) processing unit 319 providing subcarriers for User 3.

(20) The symbols of User 4 are input to an IFFT block 315. The symbols processed by the IFFT block are filtered by a CP Addition (ADD) processing unit 321 providing subcarriers for User 4.

(21) An adder 323 adds the subcarriers for User 1 and User 2, the subcarriers for User 3 and the subcarriers for User 4 providing symbols for User 1, User 2, User 3 and User 4 in frequency domain.

(22) The symbols of User 1 experience a good channel, a Low Doppler spread and an IOTA pulse shape. Therefore, high data rate with FTN is provided, small subcarrier spacing is used and low out-of-band radiation is required.

(23) The symbols of User 2 experience a bad channel with low Doppler spread. Therefore, no FTN is possible.

(24) The symbols of User 3 experience a bad channel, a High Doppler spread and an EGF pulse shape. Therefore, no FTN is possible, large subcarrier spacing is used and the pulse shape is adapted to the channel.

(25) The symbols of User 4 experience a bad channel, a high Doppler spread and power constraints at the receiver. Therefore, no FTN is possible, large subcarrier spacing is used and CP-OFDM is applied for providing a simple equalization.

(26) In an implementation form, the subcarrier spacing per link is not a constant, instead the spacing is individually selected per user.

(27) The method 300 can be applied in a base station 100 as described above with respect to FIG. 1 with a transceiver 101 and a radio resource controller 103 implementing a corresponding resource allocation algorithm.

(28) The transceiver 101 of FIG. 1 receives the service quality requests of User 1 (U1, 340), user 2 (U2, 342), User 3 (U3, 344) and User 4 (U4, 346) and forwards these service quality requests to the radio resource controller 103 that individually configures the links 330, 332, 334, 336 for data transmission. The OQAM mappers 301, 303, the FTN mapper 305, the guard bands 307, 309, the IFFT blocks 311, 313, 315, the PPN processing units 317, 319 and the CP ADD processing unit 321 are arranged in the transceiver 101. The assigning of the link 330 for User 1, link 332 for User 2, link 334 for User 3 and link 336 for User 4 to the different processing units 301, 303, 305, 307, 309, 311, 313, 315, 317, 319, 321 of the transceiver 101 and the allocation and configuration of those processing units in the transceiver 101 are controlled by the radio resource controller 103.

(29) FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a radio resources allocation algorithm for two users 401, 403 within a macro cell 400 according to an implementation form. As can be seen in FIG. 4, there are two users 401, 403 in a scenario of an LTE macro cell 400, where User #1 401 is located near the base station 405 and experiencing good channel properties, meanwhile User #2 403 is located at the cell edge with bad channel conditions. The communication channel, i.e. the air interface 421 of User #1 401 is directly connected to the base station 405 while the communication channel, i.e. the air interface 423 of User #2 403, has to pass through two buildings 407 located between User #2 403 and the base station 405 before reaching the base station 405. The base station 405 may correspond to a base station 100 as described with respect to FIG. 1, comprising a transceiver 101 and a radio resource controller 103. User #1 401 and User #2 403 have the same data rate demands. User #1 401 has no complexity issues with respect to power consumption and less bandwidth occupied than User #2 403. User #2 403 has low complexity with respect to power consumption and more bandwidth occupied than User #1 401. The radio resources allocation, e.g. performed by the radio resource controller 103 as described above with respect to FIG. 1, provides User #1 401 with a very high data rate service by consuming only a small portion of the available bandwidth thanks to using the FTN mode transmission. Given that User #2 403 has the same data rate demand and its allowed receiver power consumption is rather limited, i.e. low on battery, the system configures User #2 403 in the CP-OFDM mode and assigns relatively more bandwidth than User #1 401, since conventional CP-OFDM has a lower spectrum efficiency but lower receiver complexity/power-consumption demand than FTN mode based on FBMC.

(30) In an implementation form of the resource allocation algorithm for those users whose link SNR is larger than a pre-defined threshold (SNR_TH_1), and whose transceiver supports FTN mode, the resource allocation algorithm allocates FTN mode resource to them.

(31) In an implementation form of the resource allocation algorithm for those systems whose spectral masks are stringent and whose users happened to be edge-band located and whose transceiver supports FBMC mode, the resource allocation algorithm allocates FBMC mode resource to them.

(32) In an implementation form of the resource allocation algorithm for those users whose transceiver neither supports FTN nor FBMC mode, the resource allocation algorithm allocates CP-OFDM mode resource to them (downward compatibility). The resource allocation algorithm selects CP-OFDM mode if the user underlies strict energy constraints, i.e. low on battery. Since CP-OFDM is much less complex, the processing is much less power consuming.

(33) In an implementation form of the resource allocation algorithm for systems with high mobility, i.e., the estimated moving speed is higher than a pre-defined threshold SPEED_TH_1 or with poor synchronization capabilities, the resource allocation algorithm allocates FBMC mode resources with larger subcarrier spacing and optimized pulse shape.

(34) In an implementation form of the resource allocation algorithm, upon all users' bandwidth requirement, the resource allocation algorithm decides on the partition of bandwidth resources for each transmission mode, i.e., FTN, FTN+FBMC, FBMC, CP-OFDM, etc. and the guard-band width between two neighboring configurations if necessary.

(35) In an implementation form of the resource allocation algorithm, the resource allocation algorithm signals the allocation decisions via downlink signaling channel to each user, e.g., via PDCCH for LTE.

(36) The resource allocation algorithm can be applied in a radio resource controller 103 of a base station 100 as described above with respect to FIG. 1. The steps allocating subcarriers 203 and configuring subcarriers 205 of the method 200 described with respect to FIG. 2 can apply the resource allocation algorithm for the allocation and configuration of the subcarriers.

(37) FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of an apparatus 500 for prioritizing user traffic according to an implementation form.

(38) The apparatus 500 is used for prioritizing user traffic. The apparatus 500 comprises a transceiver 501 and a bandwidth controller 503. The transceiver 501 is used for multi-carrier transmission within a frequency band. The transceiver 501 receives service quality requests 502 of a plurality of users requesting service. The bandwidth controller 503 allocates subcarriers of the multi-carrier transmission to the users and configures the subcarriers in the frequency band according to the service quality requests 502 of the users. The step of configuring the subcarriers is based on a user-specific priority assigned to each user.

(39) The transceiver 501 may correspond to the transceiver 101 described with respect to FIG. 1. The bandwidth controller 503 may correspond to the radio resource controller 103 described with respect to FIG. 1. In an implementation form, the transceiver 501 is used for multi-carrier transmission with respect to wire line data transmission, e.g. DSL.

(40) FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a method 600 for prioritizing user traffic according to an implementation form.

(41) The method is used for prioritizing user traffic of a multi-carrier transmission within a frequency band. The method 600 comprises receiving 601 service quality requests of a plurality of users requesting service. The method 600 comprises allocating 603 subcarriers of the multi-carrier transmission to the users. The method 600 comprises configuring 605 the subcarriers in the frequency band according to the service quality requests of the users, the configuring being based on a user-specific priority assigned to each user.

(42) The step of receiving requests 601 may correspond to the step of receiving requests 201 described with respect to FIG. 2. The step of allocating subcarriers 603 may correspond to the step of allocating subcarriers 203 described with respect to FIG. 2. The step of configuring subcarriers based on a user-specific priority 605 may correspond to the step of configuring subcarriers 205 described with respect to FIG. 2 when the configuration of the subcarriers is based on a priority of the users.

(43) From the foregoing, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety of methods, systems, computer programs on recording media, and the like, are provided.

(44) The present disclosure also supports a computer program product including computer executable code or computer executable instructions that, when executed, causes at least one computer to execute the performing and computing steps described herein.

(45) Many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the above teachings. Of course, those skilled in the art readily recognize that there are numerous applications of the invention beyond those described herein. While the present inventions have been described with reference to one or more particular embodiments, those skilled in the art recognize that many changes may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents, the inventions may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein.