Aperiodic CSI Reporting for Carrier Aggregation

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional LTE-A systems are unable to effectively support aperiodic channel state information (CSI) reporting for more than five serving cells in carrier aggregation scenarios, limiting data throughput and channel quality reporting in advanced wireless communication systems.

Innovation Solution

The introduction of additional bits in the CSI request field within DCI or RAR grants allows for aperiodic CSI reporting across multiple sets of serving cells, enabling support for up to 32 component carriers by expanding the CSI request field values and scaling subband sizes for channel quality indicator (CQI) and precoding matrix indicator (PMI) reporting based on aggregated bandwidth.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If the CSI request field uses conventional bit allocation (2 bits), then signaling overhead is reduced, but the number of supported serving cells is limited to five

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenumber of supported serving cellsVSAvoidCSI request field size
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the serving cells into multiple groups (first group and second group), where each group can be independently triggered for CSI reporting. This allows the system to support more than five serving cells by dividing them into manageable subsets, resolving the contradiction between supporting more cells and maintaining manageable signaling complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent extends the CSI request field from 2 bits to 4 bits, adding another dimension to the signaling capability. This dimensional expansion allows the field to represent a larger number of serving cells (up to 32) without requiring a proportional increase in processing complexity, as the additional bits simply extend the addressing space.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Adaptability or versatility

If additional bits are added to the CSI request field to support more serving cells, then the number of supported component carriers increases, but signaling overhead increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenumber of supported component carriersVSAvoidsignaling overhead
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

By segmenting serving cells into groups and using group-based triggering, the patent reduces the effective signaling overhead. Instead of individually addressing each of the 32 possible serving cells, the system triggers CSI reporting for groups of cells, thereby reducing the actual number of bits needed in practice while maintaining the capability to support up to 32 component carriers.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

3Measurement precision

If subband sizes are scaled for CQI and PMI reporting based on aggregated bandwidth, then measurement precision is improved, but computational complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvechannel quality reporting precisionVSAvoidcomputational complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent dynamically scales subband sizes based on the aggregated bandwidth. When more component carriers are aggregated, the subband size increases proportionally, maintaining measurement precision across different bandwidth configurations. This dynamic adjustment allows the system to adapt to varying bandwidth requirements without requiring fixed, overly complex processing for all scenarios.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentEP3251241B1Aperiodic channel state information (CSI) reporting for carrier aggregation
Publication Date: 2022.01.19 APPLE INC
  • EP3251241B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3251241B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3251241B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Aperiodic channel state information (CSI) reporting is discussed. An example user equipment includes a receiver circuit, processor, and transmitter circuit. The receiver circuit receives transmissions from a plurality of serving cells via a carrier aggregation (CA) mode and receives an aperiodic CSI reporting request indicating a set for CSI reporting. The plurality of serving cells comprises at least six serving cells, and one or more of the plurality is associated with the indicated set. The processor is operably coupled to the receiver circuit and calculates one or more CSI parameters for each serving cell of the plurality that is associated with the indicated set; and generates an aperiodic CSI report based at least in part on the calculated CSI parameters for each serving cell associated with the indicated set. The transmitter circuit transmits the aperiodic CSI report to an Evolved NodeB (eNB) via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).