Physical-Layer Control Signal for Secondary Cell Activation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless communication technologies face challenges in efficiently managing the activation and deactivation of secondary cells, particularly due to high latency and computing resource usage associated with MAC-layer signaling, which can be detrimental during Layer 1 or Layer 2 inter-cell mobility operations.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a physical-layer (Layer 1) control signal for the activation or deactivation of secondary cells, using downlink control information (DCI) to reduce latency and conserve computing resources, by selectively transmitting ACK/NACK feedback and scheduling semi-persistent signals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If MAC-layer signaling is used for activation/deactivation of secondary cells, then reliability of cell management is improved, but latency increases and computing resources are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a physical-layer control signal as an intermediary mechanism between the MAC layer and the secondary cell activation/deactivation process. This physical-layer signal acts as a fast mediator that can immediately trigger cell state changes without waiting for MAC-layer processing, thereby reducing latency while maintaining reliability through the existing MAC-layer confirmation mechanisms
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary configuration of secondary cells at the physical layer, where cell parameters and activation conditions are pre-configured before actual data transmission. This allows the system to rapidly activate or deactivate cells by simply sending physical-layer control signals without requiring complex MAC-layer processing at the moment of activation, thus reducing latency while maintaining management reliability
2Reliability
If MAC-layer signaling is used for activation/deactivation of secondary cells, then cell management control is improved, but computing resource usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the activation/deactivation control function from the MAC-layer processing chain and implements it directly at the physical layer. By taking out this specific function from the computationally intensive MAC layer, the system reduces computing resource consumption while maintaining control reliability through the extracted physical-layer control signal mechanism that operates independently of MAC-layer processing loads
3Loss of time
If physical-layer control signal is used for activation/deactivation of secondary cells, then latency is reduced and computing resources are conserved, but complexity of control signaling increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the physical-layer control signal universal by designing it to handle multiple functions including activation, deactivation, and state confirmation of secondary cells. This multi-functional physical-layer signal reduces the need for separate dedicated signals for each operation, thereby reducing overall signaling complexity while achieving low-latency control and conserving computing resources through the unified physical-layer mechanism
Data Source
AI summary
Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. In some aspects, a user equipment (UE) may receive a physical-layer control signal indicating to activate or deactivate a set of secondary cells (SCells); and activate or deactivate the set of SCells in accordance with the physical-layer control signal. Numerous other aspects are provided.