Enabling support for transparent relays in wireless communication

Abstract

Providing for improved implementation of supplemental wireless nodes in a wireless base station deployment is described herein. By way of example, a donor base station is configured to send a schedule of data transmission to and from a set of UEs served by the base station, and further can provide the schedule and identifiers for the set of UEs to one or more wireless nodes serving the base station. Respective access channel measurements between respective UEs and respective wireless nodes can be forwarded to the base station, which in turn can identify optimal access channels for the set of UEs. Additionally, the donor base station can schedule multiple data transmissions on these access channels in a common transmission time slot, to achieve cell-splitting gains for the data transmissions. Range boosting, differential coding, and supplemental channel quality mechanisms are also provided for various wireless communication arrangements described herein.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of wireless communication, comprising:
 sending a wireless signal comprising a resource assignment directly to a set of user equipments (a set of UEs), wherein the resource assignment schedules a transmission for each of the set of UEs on a common wireless resource; and   routing data transmissions to or from the set of UEs via one or more wireless nodes to achieve a cell-splitting gain at least on the common wireless resource for the data transmissions.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising employing a common uplink (UL) wireless resource for the common wireless resource, wherein the data transmissions are received from the set of UEs via the one or more wireless nodes and the cell-splitting gain is observed on the common UL wireless resource. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising routing a downlink data transmission (a DL data transmission) on a common DL wireless resource from respective ones of the one or more wireless nodes to achieve a DL cell-splitting gain on the common DL wireless resource. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising at least one of:
 employing respective wireless relays for routing a DL and an UL data transmission for each UE of the set of UEs; or   employing a plurality of wireless relays for routing the DL or the UL data transmission for at least one UE of the set of UEs.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising increasing DL transmit range of the one or more wireless nodes by causing a base station to blank a set of DL wireless resources employed by the one or more wireless nodes. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising increasing UL transmit range of at least one of the set of UEs by instructing at least one additional UE of the set of UEs to blank a set of UL wireless resources employed by the at least one of the set of UEs. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising assigning respective scrambling codes to a subset of the set of UEs to facilitate distinguishing between respective ones of a plurality of the data transmissions sent concurrently on the common wireless resource. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising at least one of:
 deriving the scrambling codes from a set of predetermined scrambling codes; or   generating the scrambling codes as a function of an identifier unique to respective UEs of the subset of the set of UEs.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein assigning the scrambling codes further comprises at least one of:
 sending a scrambling code seed or seeding function to respective UEs of the subset of the set of UEs to enable generation of one of the scrambling codes;   utilizing a physical layer or layer two control channel to transmit an assignment grant that comprises one or more of the scrambling codes; or   employing layer three signaling to send the scrambling codes explicitly to one or more UEs of the subset of the set of UEs.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising obtaining channel quality indicator (CQI) information pertaining to a set of relay channels between the one or more wireless nodes and the set of UEs by at least one of:
 employing time division duplex (TDD) channel reciprocity for respective relay channels of the set of relay channels to estimate respective pathlosses to respective ones of the one or more wireless nodes; or   analyzing a low reuse relay-specific CQI reference signal transmitted by a subset of the set of UEs to estimate achievable CQI for respective access channels associated with the subset of the set of UEs.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 obtaining an UL signal measurement from at least one of the one or more wireless nodes via a wired or wireless backhaul link;   analyzing the UL signal measurement to derive a set of UL power controls for one or more UEs of the set of UEs served by the at least one of the one or more wireless nodes; and   issue UL power control commands to the one or more UEs via the at least one of the one or more wireless nodes based on the set of UL power controls.   
     
     
         12 . An apparatus configured for wireless communication, comprising:
 means for employing a wireless transceiver to transmit a resource assignment directly to a set of user equipments (a set of UEs), wherein the resource assignment schedules a transmission for each of the set of UEs on a common wireless resource; and   means for employing the wireless transceiver to route respective data transmissions of the set of UEs via one or more wireless nodes to achieve a cell-splitting gain for at least one of the data transmissions at least on the common wireless resource.   
     
     
         13 . An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:
 at least one processor, comprising:   a module that transmits a resource assignment directly to a set of user equipments (a set of UEs), wherein the resource assignment schedules a transmission for each of the set of UEs on a common wireless resource; and   a module that routes respective data transmissions of the set of UEs via one or more wireless nodes to achieve a cell-splitting gain for at least one of the data transmissions at least on the common wireless resource.   
     
     
         14 . A computer program product, comprising:
 a computer-readable medium, comprising:   code for causing a computer to transmit a resource assignment directly to a set of user equipments (a set of UEs), wherein the resource assignment schedules a transmission for each of the set of UEs on a common wireless resource; and   code for causing the computer to route respective data transmissions of the set of UEs via one or more wireless nodes to achieve a cell-splitting gain for at least one of the data transmissions at least on the common wireless resource.