Enhanced PHICH Resource Allocation for ACK/NACK Reception
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In wireless communication systems, especially those supporting carrier aggregation and a large number of user equipment, the conventional physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and physical hybrid-ARQ indicator channel (PHICH) face challenges with radio resource shortages and interference, making it difficult to reliably transmit acknowledgement/not-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) signals to user equipment.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of an enhanced-PDCCH (E-PDCCH) and enhanced-PHICH (E-PHICH) channels, which can be configured in addition to the conventional PDCCH and PHICH, allows for unambiguous reception of ACK/NACK signals by user equipment, particularly in systems like LTE-A, by allocating these channels in data regions and using specific search spaces and resource allocations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the number of user equipments supported by the base station is increased, then the system capacity is improved, but the radio resource of PDCCH and PHICH becomes insufficient and interference becomes serious
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the control channel resources by introducing separate PDCCH and PHICH regions within the downlink control region. This segmentation allows independent resource allocation and management for control information and ACK/NACK signals, preventing resource conflicts and enabling support for more user equipments without increasing overall interference.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new spatial dimension for control channel allocation by defining specific PDCCH region and PHICH region locations within the downlink control region. This dimensional organization separates control information streams and enables more efficient resource utilization, allowing the system to accommodate increased user equipment density.
2Productivity
If carrier aggregation is supported to expand bandwidth, then the data rate is improved, but the complexity of ACK/NACK reception regulation becomes serious
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by allowing different PHICH reception configurations for different serving cells and uplink-downlink configurations. Each cell can be independently configured with appropriate PHICH reception parameters, enabling flexible adaptation to carrier aggregation scenarios without requiring complex system-wide regulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses preliminary action by pre-configuring PHICH reception parameters through higher layer signaling before data transmission begins. This advance configuration includes setting PHICH resource allocation, timing relationships, and association rules, which simplifies real-time ACK/NACK reception processing during carrier aggregation operation.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Provided are a method and an apparatus for a user equipment, which is allocated a plurality of serving cells, receiving acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) in a wireless communication system. The method comprises: transmitting uplink data through a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); and receiving ACK/NACK with respect to the uplink through a physical hybrid-ARQ indicator channel (PHICH), wherein a serving cell that receives the ACK/NACK is selected from one or more serving cells, which the user equipment monitors to detect an uplink grant that schedules the PUSCH.