HARQ Soft Buffer Partitioning via Carrier Weighting

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional HARQ schemes face inefficiencies in managing downlink soft buffers, particularly with carrier aggregation, as they equally divide soft buffer bits among carriers regardless of channel conditions and interference levels, leading to suboptimal buffer utilization and performance.

Innovation Solution

The proposed solution involves using carrier-dependent weighting factors to partition the soft buffer among aggregated carriers based on their specific bandwidths and characteristics, allowing for dynamic allocation of soft buffer bits to account for differing channel conditions and interference levels, and implementing buffer repartitioning rules to minimize the impact of carrier-related reconfigurations.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of manufacture

If conventional HARQ schemes equally divide soft buffer bits among carriers, then buffer allocation is simple, but buffer utilization efficiency deteriorates under carrier aggregation with different channel conditions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvebuffer allocation simplicityVSAvoidbuffer utilization efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of manufactureVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by assigning different soft buffer sizes to different carriers based on their specific characteristics (bandwidth, channel conditions, interference levels). Instead of uniform allocation, each carrier receives a customized buffer portion proportional to its actual data transmission requirements, thereby optimizing buffer utilization efficiency while maintaining manageable allocation complexity through carrier-dependent weighting factors.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Device complexity

If soft buffer is partitioned equally among aggregated carriers, then partitioning is straightforward, but HARQ performance deteriorates due to suboptimal buffer allocation

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepartitioning complexityVSAvoidHARQ performance
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent employs parameter changes by introducing carrier-dependent weighting factors that dynamically adjust soft buffer allocation based on varying carrier characteristics such as bandwidth, channel conditions, and interference levels. This allows the system to adapt buffer partitioning to current operational parameters, improving HARQ performance while managing complexity through standardized weighting calculations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

3Adaptability or versatility

If carrier-related reconfiguration occurs, then network flexibility is improved, but buffer repartitioning impact increases HARQ operation disruption

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecarrier reconfiguration flexibilityVSAvoidHARQ operation disruption time
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by establishing buffer repartitioning rules in advance that define how soft buffer allocation should be adjusted during carrier reconfiguration. These pre-defined rules enable the system to automatically and efficiently reallocate buffer resources when carrier configurations change, minimizing disruption to ongoing HARQ operations while maintaining network flexibility.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP2636174B1HARQ soft bit buffer partitioning for carrier aggregation
Publication Date: 2018.10.17 BLACKBERRY LTD
  • EP2636174B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2636174B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2636174B1 patent drawingFigure 3~4

AI summary

A method, system and device are provided for partitioning a HARQ soft bit buffer between aggregated carriers as a function of carrier-related weighting factors so that the total number of soft buffer bits are efficiently allocated to obtain a plurality of soft buffer partitions for the plurality of aggregated carriers which are sized based on relative carrier- related weighting factors.