Special Component Carrier for Uplink Control in Carrier Aggregation
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Solution Overview
Problem
In wireless communication systems, carrier aggregation can be affected by backhaul delays, particularly when uplink control signals need to be transmitted from a macro cell base station to a small cell base station, leading to delayed operations and reduced communication quality for terminal devices.
Innovation Solution
A communication control device and method that acquires information about terminal devices using macro cell component carriers and sets additional component carriers from overlapping small cells as special carriers for transmitting uplink control information, reducing the impact of backhaul delays by allowing uplink control signals to be transmitted on these special carriers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If uplink control signals are transmitted via backhaul from macro cell base station to small cell base station, then carrier aggregation can be implemented, but transmission delay increases and communication quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the uplink control signal transmission function from the backhaul path and relocates it to the wireless interface. By designating a specific small cell component carrier as a special component carrier, the terminal device can directly transmit uplink control signals to the small cell base station without routing through the macro cell base station, thereby eliminating backhaul-induced delays while preserving carrier aggregation functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a special component carrier as an intermediary channel between the terminal device and the small cell base station. This special carrier acts as a dedicated pathway for uplink control signals, bypassing the traditional backhaul route and enabling direct communication that reduces latency while maintaining the carrier aggregation architecture.
2Device complexity
If uplink control signals are transmitted through backhaul, then network architecture is simplified, but operation speed decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the component carriers into different functional categories: regular component carriers for data transmission and a special component carrier for uplink control signals. This segmentation allows the system to maintain a simplified overall network architecture while creating a dedicated high-speed pathway for control signals, thereby resolving the contradiction between architectural simplicity and operational speed.
3Productivity
If traditional carrier aggregation is used with backhaul, then resource utilization is improved, but communication quality deteriorates due to delay
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by assigning a specific function (uplink control signal transmission) to a particular component carrier (the special component carrier). This localized functional assignment ensures that critical control signals benefit from direct transmission paths while other carriers continue to handle data transmission, thereby maintaining high resource utilization across the system while improving communication quality for control operations.
Data Source
AI summary
To enable a reduction in the effect of backhauling on wireless communications in the case of carrier aggregation, provided herein is a communication control device that acquires information about a terminal device that uses one component carrier of a macro cell as a primary component carrier, sets one or more component carriers of a small cell partially or fully overlapping with the macro cell as an additional component carrier to be used additionally by the terminal device, and sets one component carrier among the one or more component carriers as a special component carrier on which the terminal device is able to transmit uplink control information on an uplink control channel, wherein the uplink control information includes at least one of an acknowledgement (ACK) and a negative acknowledgement (NACK) regarding reception of a downlink signal, an uplink scheduling request, or periodically reported channel state information.