Half-Duplex Resource Coordination in New Radio Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless communication systems, particularly New Radio (NR) systems, face challenges in efficiently utilizing time and frequency resources due to conflicts between uplink and downlink transmissions in half-duplex user equipment (UEs), leading to reduced throughput.
Innovation Solution
The system implements techniques to coordinate timing advances and resource allocation for UEs, allowing sufficient time for transitioning between uplink and downlink configurations, and avoids simultaneous bidirectional communication on different carriers by prioritizing communication based on carrier identities and numerologies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If half-duplex UEs utilize time and frequency resources with different numerologies, then resource utilization efficiency improves, but timing conflicts between uplink and downlink transmissions increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic slot structure adaptation where the base station configures different slot formats (uplink-centric, downlink-centric, or flexible) based on real-time traffic conditions and UE capabilities. This allows the system to dynamically adjust timing arrangements to prevent conflicts while maximizing resource utilization for half-duplex UEs operating with different numerologies.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the time-frequency resource grid into distinct uplink and downlink regions with guard periods, allowing half-duplex UEs to clearly identify when to switch between transmission and reception modes. This segmentation prevents timing conflicts by ensuring that uplink and downlink transmissions do not overlap in time for half-duplex devices.
2Reliability
If sufficient transition time is allocated for UE configuration switching, then half-duplex operation reliability improves, but system throughput decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic slot structures with regular patterns of uplink and downlink slots, allowing half-duplex UEs to predictably switch configurations at known intervals. This periodicity ensures reliable operation while minimizing idle transition time, as UEs can optimize their switching schedule to match the periodic pattern rather than requiring extended guard periods between arbitrary switches.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the timing parameters (slot duration, guard period length, subcarrier spacing) based on traffic conditions and UE capabilities. By dynamically adjusting these parameters, the system can reduce transition time when conditions allow, thereby maintaining reliability while improving throughput.
3Adaptability or versatility
If bidirectional communication is scheduled on multiple carriers, then communication versatility improves, but timing coordination complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The base station acts as an intermediary that centrally coordinates timing across multiple carriers for half-duplex UEs. It receives capability information from the UE, determines appropriate timing arrangements, and configures slot formats and guard periods to prevent conflicts. This centralized coordination simplifies the overall system complexity compared to distributed coordination mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a universal slot format configuration mechanism that can be applied across multiple carriers with different numerologies. The base station uses a unified approach to configure uplink and downlink slot patterns that works consistently across FDD and TDD carriers, reducing the complexity of managing different coordination schemes for different carrier types.
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AI summary
Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A base station may communicate with a user equipment (UE) using frequency resources (e.g., subcarriers) with scalable channel spacing and time resources (e.g., slots) with variable slot durations. The individual slots may include multiple symbols, and each symbol may be allocated for communication in a specific link direction (e.g., uplink, downlink, or sidelink). For UEs configured to operate in a half-duplex mode, the base station may allocate sufficient time for the UE to transition between uplink and downlink configurations. In other cases, for carrier aggregation, the base station may coordinate with the UE to prevent conflicting communications (e.g., simultaneous uplink and downlink transmissions). UEs or other devices may communicate directly with one another in a device-to-device configuration using the same or a similar scheme to allow for half-duplex devices to transition between sending and receiving.