Base Station Control Channel Segmentation for Heterogeneous Network Efficiency
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Solution Overview
Problem
In heterogeneous network deployments, existing methods for transmitting control information from a base station to a terminal face challenges in efficiently transmitting control information, leading to capacity issues in the transmission region, which hampers communication efficiency between the base station and the terminal.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a communication system that utilizes a base station to transmit control information through both a first control channel region using cell-specific reference signals and a second control channel region using terminal-specific reference signals, allowing for adaptive precoding and beamforming, and orthogonal multiplexing with data channels, thereby enhancing transmission efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If control information is transmitted only through a first control channel region using cell-specific reference signals, then device complexity is reduced, but transmission efficiency and adaptability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The control channel is segmented into two distinct regions: a first control channel region using cell-specific reference signals for basic control information, and a second control channel region using terminal-specific reference signals for enhanced control information. This segmentation allows each region to serve specific functions, improving overall transmission efficiency while maintaining manageable device complexity through structured organization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new dimension to the control channel structure by adding the second control channel region with terminal-specific reference signals, extending beyond the traditional single control channel region. This dimensional expansion enables adaptive precoding and beamforming, significantly improving transmission efficiency and adaptability without overwhelming device complexity.
2Productivity
If adaptive precoding and beamforming are implemented in the second control channel region, then transmission efficiency is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Adaptive precoding and beamforming are applied locally only in the second control channel region where terminal-specific reference signals are used, rather than across the entire control channel. This localized application improves transmission efficiency for terminal-specific control information while limiting the increase in device complexity to only the necessary processing components.
Solution Approach 2:
Terminal-specific reference signals act as intermediaries that enable adaptive precoding and beamforming in the second control channel region. These reference signals provide the necessary channel state information to perform sophisticated signal processing while maintaining a clear separation between the simplified first control channel region and the enhanced second control channel region.
3Reliability
If control information is multiplexed with data channels in the second control channel region, then frequency diversity is achieved, but measurement precision becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Terminal-specific reference signals serve as intermediaries that are multiplexed with control information in the second control channel region, enabling frequency diversity through channelization while providing the necessary reference for accurate channel measurement and estimation, thus resolving the conflict between diversity and measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of reference signal type from cell-specific to terminal-specific in the second control channel region, enabling both frequency diversity through multiplexing and accurate channel measurement through terminal-specific channel state information, thereby resolving the contradiction between reliability and measurement precision.
Data Source
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AI summary
A base station apparatus in the present invention includes a terminal-specific control channel generation unit that generates terminal-specific control channels mapped in a terminal-specific control channel region that is configured specifically to the terminal apparatus and that is constituted by a prescribed number of resource block pairs and transmitted. If a number of candidate specific control channels monitored by the terminal apparatus is smaller than or equal to a number of resource block pairs in the terminal-specific control channel region at each aggregation level, which indicates a number of the enhanced control channel elements used in each of the terminal-specific control channels, each of the candidate terminal-specific control channels corresponds to a different resource block pair in the terminal-specific control channel region. The terminal-specific control channels are mapped in one of the candidates. As a result, in a radio communication system in which a base station and a terminal communicate with each other, the base station can efficiently transmit control information to the terminal, which is advantageous.