Radio resource assignment in control channel in wireless communication systems

Abstract

A method in a wireless communication device including receiving ( 410 ) a composite control channel including at least two control channel elements, each control channel element only contains radio resource assignment information, for example, a codeword, exclusively addressed to a single wireless communication entity. The device combines ( 420 ) at least two of the control channel elements, and decodes ( 430 ) the combined control channel elements.

1 . A method in a wireless communication device, the method comprising:
 receiving a composite control channel including at least two control channel elements,   each control channel element only contains radio resource assignment information exclusively addressed to a single wireless communication entity;   combining at least two of the control channel elements;   decoding the combined control channel elements.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , combining the at least two of the control channel elements includes summing information derived from identical first and second codeword information, the first codeword information is within a first control channel element and the second codeword information is within a second control channel element. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , combining the at least two of the control channel elements includes rearranging and summing soft information derived from different first and second codeword information, the first codeword information is within a first control channel element and the second codeword information is within a second control channel element. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , combining the at least two control channel elements according to predefined combinations of control channel elements. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 ,
 combining the at least two control channel elements according to predefined combinations of control channel elements,   at least one of the pre-defined combinations includes combining at least two logically contiguous control channel elements.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 ,
 combining the at least two control channel elements according to predefined combinations of control channel elements,   at least one of the pre-defined combinations includes combining at least two non-adjacent control channel elements.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 4 ,
 each of the plurality of control channel elements having an associated root index,   combining the at least two control channel elements based on the associated root indices.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 ,
 determining a number of control channel elements constituting the composite control channel,   combining at least two of the control channel elements based on the determination of the number of control channel elements constituting the composite control channel.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , determining a number of control channel elements based on existence of control channel element number information included in the composite control channel. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , determining a number of control channel elements based on data shared between a wireless communication device and a network infrastructure entity. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , determining that all control channel elements of the composite control channel communicate control channel information in the absence of control channel element number information included in the composite control channel. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , determining a number of control channel elements based on a sequence of bits appended to the composite control channel. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 ,
 receiving the composite control channel includes receiving a first composite control channel in a first receive bandwidth on first center frequency and receiving a second composite control channel in a second receive bandwidth on a second center frequency,   at least the first composite control channel including at least two control channel elements;   combining at least two of the control channel elements;   decoding the combined control channel elements.   
     
     
         14 . A method in a wireless communication network infrastructure entity, the method comprising:
 transmitting a composite control channel including at least two control channel elements;   including a first version of a codeword including a resource assignment on a first control channel element of the composite control channel,   including a second version of the codeword including a resource assignment on a second control channel element of the composite control channel,   the first and second versions of the codeword are addressed to the same entity.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the first and second versions of the codeword are the same. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the first and second versions of the codeword are different. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , transmitting the composite control channel includes transmitting a composite control channel including at least two control channel elements, wherein each control channel element only contains radio resource assignment information exclusively addressed to a single wireless communication entity. 
     
     
         18 . A method in a wireless communication device, the method comprising:
 receiving a composite control channel including at least two radio resource assignment control channel elements;   determining a number of types of control channel elements constituting the composite control channel.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 ,
 the composite control channel including type indicator information for each type of control channel element constituting the composite control channel,   determining the number of types of control channel elements based on the type indicator information.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , the type indicator information includes a sequence of bits appended to a last control channel element of each type. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 18 , determining a number of control channel elements constituting at least one type of control channel elements of the composite control channel. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 18 , determining a number of control channel elements constituting at least two types of control channel elements of the composite control channel. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 18 , determining a number of control channel elements constituting at least one type of control channel element of the composite control channel. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 18 , determining the number of types of control channel elements constituting the composite control channel includes determining a number of uplink control channel elements and determining a number of downlink control channel elements. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 18 , determining the number of types of control channel elements constituting the composite control channel includes determining a number of uplink control channel elements based on a first sequence of bits and determining a number of downlink control channel elements based on a second sequence of bits. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , determining the number of uplink control channel elements based on where the first sequence of bits is embedded within the frame and determining the number of downlink control channel elements based on where the second sequence of bits is embedded within the frame. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 18 , the type of a control element is determined after successful decoding of the control element, through a type bit included in the decoded payload.