MTC UE Enhanced Coverage Link Budget via Periodic Packet Repetition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Machine Type Communications (MTC) UEs in cellular networks, such as sensors and microcontrollers, face challenges in maintaining communication due to limited computational power and power constraints, often resulting in insufficient link budget for communication with base stations, especially in areas with poor coverage, where increasing transmission power is not feasible.
Innovation Solution
Implementing an enhanced coverage mode that allows for repeated transmission of packets to accumulate energy at the receiver without increasing transmission power, using different resource regions and modulation schemes, and allocating specific MTC regions for MTC UEs to achieve additional link budget, thereby improving communication efficiency and reducing power consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If transmission power is increased to improve link budget, then communication reliability is improved, but power consumption increases and device constraints are violated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic repetition of packets over multiple transmission occasions. Instead of continuously transmitting at high power, the system transmits packets periodically and accumulates energy at the receiver through repeated transmissions. This resolves the contradiction by achieving reliable communication through temporal repetition rather than continuous high-power transmission, thereby reducing overall power consumption while maintaining communication reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuous communication through repeated packet transmissions over multiple occasions. The useful action of transmitting packets is continued across multiple time instances, allowing the receiver to accumulate sufficient energy from these repeated transmissions. This continuous repetition enables reliable communication without requiring the transmitter to continuously operate at high power, thus resolving the energy consumption issue.
2Reliability
If packets are transmitted repeatedly to accumulate energy, then link budget is improved, but transmission time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses periodic packet repetition with configured transmission occasions to accumulate link budget. By transmitting packets periodically rather than continuously, the system achieves the required link budget through repeated transmissions while managing transmission time efficiently. The periodic structure allows the receiver to accumulate energy from multiple transmissions without requiring excessive time, resolving the contradiction between link budget accumulation and transmission time.
3Reliability
If transmission power is increased to overcome poor coverage, then communication reliability is improved, but device complexity and constraints are violated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic packet repetition as a protocol mechanism that operates within existing device constraints. Instead of requiring devices to increase transmission power or complexity to overcome poor coverage, the system uses temporal repetition of packets to accumulate energy at the receiver. This approach improves communication reliability in poor coverage areas while maintaining device simplicity and adhering to power and computational constraints.
Data Source
AI summary
An eNodeB (eNB), user equipment (UE) and method for operating in enhanced coverage (EC) modes are generally described. The UE may receive one or more physical broadcast channel (PBCH) signals, dependent on whether the UE is in a normal coverage mode or in one of the EC modes. The PBCH signal may be combined to form a combined PBCH signal, when the UE is in an EC mode, and decoded to determine one of a plurality of sets of resource regions associated different EC modes for communication with the eNB. The signal may be scrambled using a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) dependent on at least one of a signal type of the control signal and the EC mode. Paging and the system information block (SIB) signals in a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) may be decoded without decoding a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) signal associated with the PDSCH.