Fountain-Coded Carrier Aggregation to Cut PDU Duplication Latency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Dual connectivity and carrier aggregation in wireless communication systems lead to inefficiencies and wastefulness due to PDU duplication, increased latency, and resource consumption, particularly in poor channel conditions, which is detrimental to ultra-reliable low-latency communications.
Innovation Solution
Implementing fountain coding to encode datasets, allowing for efficient communication by reducing the need for in-order PDU delivery and minimizing overhead, while ensuring all received PDUs can be used for decoding regardless of the carrier, thereby optimizing resource usage and reducing latency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If PDU duplication is used in dual connectivity and carrier aggregation, then reliability is improved, but resource consumption increases and latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges duplicate PDU transmissions into a single transmission opportunity by combining data from multiple carriers into one PDU. Instead of sending identical PDUs over multiple carriers simultaneously, the system consolidates the data and transmits it once, eliminating redundant resource consumption while maintaining the reliability benefits of multi-carrier diversity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables a single PDU to serve multiple carriers universally. By designing PDUs that can be transmitted on any carrier without requiring carrier-specific duplicates, the system achieves multi-functionality where one PDU structure can be flexibly deployed across multiple carriers, reducing overall resource consumption while maintaining communication reliability.
2Reliability
If PDU duplication is used in dual connectivity and carrier aggregation, then reliability is improved, but latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple PDU transmissions into a single transmission event. By consolidating data from multiple carriers into one unified PDU that can be transmitted immediately on the first available carrier, the system eliminates the time delay associated with waiting for and processing duplicate transmissions across multiple carriers, thereby reducing latency while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a mechanism to skip the traditional sequential processing of duplicate PDUs by transmitting a single consolidated PDU immediately on the first available carrier without waiting for other carriers. This rushing through the transmission process eliminates unnecessary waiting time and processing delays, significantly reducing latency while preserving the reliability benefits of multi-carrier communication.
3Reliability
If in-order PDU delivery is required, then data integrity is maintained, but latency increases due to out-of-order delivery waiting
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional approach by eliminating the requirement for in-order PDU delivery. Instead of requiring PDUs to be received and processed in a specific sequence, the system accepts out-of-order delivery and uses identification fields to track and reconstruct the original data sequence. This inversion removes the latency penalty of waiting for in-order delivery while maintaining data integrity through alternative tracking mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary identification field mechanism that mediates between out-of-order delivery and data integrity requirements. This intermediary structure allows PDUs to be transmitted and received out of order while the identification fields enable the receiving end to track, buffer, and reconstruct the correct sequence, thereby maintaining data integrity without the latency penalty of strict in-order delivery.
4Reliability
If PDU duplication is implemented across multiple carriers, then communication reliability is improved, but overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple duplicate PDU transmissions into a single consolidated PDU transmission. By combining the data payloads and using a unified PDU structure that can be transmitted on any carrier, the system eliminates the overhead associated with sending identical PDUs multiple times across different carriers, reducing the total quantity of transmitted data while maintaining communication reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent designs a universal PDU structure that can serve multiple carriers simultaneously without requiring carrier-specific duplicates. This multi-functional PDU design reduces overhead by allowing a single PDU to be flexibly transmitted on any available carrier, eliminating the need for redundant carrier-specific PDU instances and their associated overhead.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus, such as a base station, may determine channel conditions associated with at least two carriers on which communication with another apparatus is configured. The apparatus may encode a dataset into a set of protocol data units (PDUs) using fountain coding based on the channel conditions. The apparatus may send a first subset of the set of PDUs to the other apparatus on a first carrier of the at least two carriers. The apparatus may send a second subset of the set of PDUs to the other apparatus on a second carrier of the at least two carriers. Another apparatus, such as a user equipment (UE), may receive the set of PDUs from the apparatus over the at least two carriers, and may decode the set of PDUs to obtain a dataset using fountain coding.